UC-NRLF. 


LIBRARY 

OF  THE 

UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA. 


Class 


SCALE  OF  MILES 


50        0         SO        100       ISO      200 

EASTERN  UNITED  STATES 


FROM  TRAIL  TO  RAILWAY 

THROUGH 
THE   APPALACHIANS 


BY 


ALBERT  PERRY  BRIGHAM,  A.M. 
\\ 

PKOFESSOR  OF  GEOLOGY  IN  COLGATE  UNIVERSITY 
AUTHOR  OF  "GEOGRAPHIC  INFLUENCES  IN  AMERICAN  HISTORY 


GINN   &   COMPANY 

BOSTON  •  NEW   YORK  •  CHICAGO  •  LONDON 


COPYRIGHT,  1907,  BY 
ALBERT   PERRY   P.RIGHAM 

ALL    RIGHTS    RESERVED 
77-2 


3tliriitTiim 


GINN    &   COMPANY  •  PRO 
PRIETORS  •  BOSTON  •  U.S.A. 


PREFACE 

This  book  grows  out  of  the  conviction  that  geography 
in  the  schools  must  return  somewhat  to  human  interests. 
In  saying  this  the  author  will  scarcely  need  to  defend 
himself  against  the  charge  of  undervaluing  physiography. 
It  is  only  a  question  of  wise  adaptation  to  youthful  stu 
dents.  Elementary  history  also  needs  to  be  placed  in  its 
setting  of  physical  conditions.  It  is  here  attempted  to 
promote  both  these  objects  in  the  study  of  the  eastern 
United  States.  If  geography  and  history  can  be  well  cor 
related,  both  of  these  great  themes  may  be  taught  with 
economy  of  time  and  with  stronger  interest. 

Much  more  might  be  said  concerning  the  growth  of 
centers,  the  agriculture,  and  the  commerce,  but  the  limits 
of  space  are  rigid.  Hence  roads  and  westward  move 
ments  have  been  made  the  main  topic.  The  geography 
is  not  taught  formally,  but  is  woven  in  with  the  story. 
Care  has  been  given  to  the  maps  of  the  several  regions, 
that  they  should  clearly  express  the  essentials  and  avoid 
the  vagueness  of  many  small-scale  representations  of  the 

Appalachian  belt. 

A.  P.  B. 

COLGATE  UNIVERSITY 
October,  1906 


CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  PAGE 

I.    BOSTON  AND  THE  BERKSHIRES i 

II.    PIONEERS  OF  THE   MOHAWK  AND  THE  HUDSON     .  14 

III.  ORISKANY,  A  BATTLE  OF  THE   REVOLUTION       .     .  29 

IV.  THE  EKIE  CANAL 40 

V.    THE  NEW  YORK  CENTRAL  RAILWAY 53 

VI.    OLD  JOURNEYS  FROM  PHILADELPHIA  TO  THE  WEST     63 

VII.    THE  PENNSYLVANIA  RAILROAD 74 

VIII.    THE  NATIONAL  ROAD 86 

IX.    THE  BALTIMORE  AND  OHIO   RAILROAD     ....     98 

X.    CITIES  OF  THE  OHIO  VALLEY in 

XI.    THE  GREAT  VALLEY .12 

XII.    To  KENTUCKY  BY  THE  CUMBERLAND  GAP   ...   14 

XIII.    FRONTIER  SOLDIERS  AND  STATESMEN       .     .     .     .155 

XIV.    CITIES  OF  THE  SOUTHERN   MOUNTAINS     ....   167 

INDEX  .     .   183 


LIST  OF  ILLUSTRATIONS 

FIGURE  PAGE 

1.  Cunard  Steamship        3 

2.  Union  Station,  Springfield 6 

3.  Deerfield  Valley,  Charlemont,  Mass 8 

4.  Eastern  Portal  of  Hoosac  Tunnel 1 1 

5.  South  Station,  Boston 12 

6.  Henry  Hudson 16 

7.  Sir  \Villiam  Johnson 20 

8.  Genesee  Street,  Utica 23 

9.  Old  Fort  Johnson,  Amsterdam,  New  York 26 

10.  Oriskany  Battle  Monument 30 

11.  Ilerkimer  directing  the  Battle  of  Oriskany 33 

12.  Ilerkimer' s  Monument  and  Mansion 36 

13.  De  Witt  Clinton 43 

14.  Erie  Canal,  Utica         46 

1 5.  Erie  Canal,  Syracuse 48 

1 6.  Traveling  by  Packet  on  the  Erie  Canal 50 

17.  Erie  Canal  and  Solvay  Works,  Syracuse 51 

18.  I)e  Witt  Clinton  Train 54 

19.  Twentieth  Century  Limited 57 

20.  Rounding  the  Noses,  Mohawk  Valley 59 

21.  Penn  Square,  Lancaster,  Pennsylvania 65 

22.  Bridge  over  Conestoga  Creek,  Lancaster,  Pennsylvania  ...  67 

23.  Tollhouse  near  Lancaster,  Pennsylvania 68 

24.  Hambright's  Hotel,  on  the  "  Lancaster  Pike" 70 

25.  Old  Road  House,  Chambersburg,  Pennsylvania 71 

26.  Freight  Locomotive,  Pennsylvania  Railroad        75 

27.  Tunnel,  Portage  Railway 76 

28.  Broad  Street  Station,  Philadelphia 77 

29.  Bridge,  Pennsylvania  Railroad,  above  Harrisburg 79 

30.  Pennsylvania  Railroad  Shops,  Altoona So 

31.  Horseshoe  Curve,  Pennsylvania  Railroad 81 

32.  Rock  Cut,  Pennsylvania  Railroad 84 

33.  Tollhouse  near  Brownsville,  Pennsylvania 87 

34.  Milestone,  Braddock's  Road,  Frostburg,  Maryland      ....  90 

35.  Old  Road  House,  Brownsville,  Pennsylvania 92 

36.  Cumberland  and  Gap  in  Wills  Mountain         95 

37.  Bridge  and  Monument,  National  Road,  near  Wheeling,  West 

Virginia 96 

38.  Mount  Royal  Station,  Baltimore 99 


viii  LIST   OF    ILLUSTRATIONS 

FIGI-RH  PAGE 

39.  Chesapeake  and  Ohio  Canal,  Cumberland 100 

40.  Highest  Point  on  Baltimore  and  Ohio  Railroad,  Sand  Patch, 

Pennsylvania 103 

41.  Down  the  Potomac  from  Harpers  Ferry 106 

42.  Coke  Ovens,  Meyersdale,  Pennsylvania 108 

43.  The  Observation  End,  Baltimore  and  Ohio  Railroad      .     .     .  110 

44.  Old  Blockhouse,  Pittsburg 112 

45.  Pittsburg 115 

46.  Coal  Barges,  Pittsburg 119 

47.  Pittsburg  at  Night 120 

48.  Furnaces  near  Pittsburg 121 

49.  River  Front,  Cincinnati 125 

50.  Luray,  Shenandoah  Valley 131 

51.  James  River  Gap  in  the  Blue  Ridge          134 

52.  Hilly  Farm  Lands,  near  Knoxville        136 

53.  Great  Valley,  from  the  Pinnacle,  Cumberland  Gap     ....  139 

54.  Cumberland  Gap  from  the  East 143 

55.  Daniel  Boone 145 

56.  Pineville  Gap,  Cumberland  River 147 

57.  Cornfield  near  Cumberland  Gap 150 

58.  Kentucky  Blue  Grass 152 

59.  Three  States  Monument,  Cumberland  Gap       153 

60.  George  Rogers  Clark 157 

61.  On  the  French  Broad 159 

62.  John  Sevier 162 

63.  James  Robertson        164 

64.  Sevier  Monument,  Knoxville 165 

65.  Old  Statehouse,  Knoxville 166 

66.  Street  in  Knoxville         168 

67.  On  the  Campus,  University  of  Tennessee 169 

68.  Marble  Quarry  near  Knoxville 171 

69.  Statehouse,  Nashville 173 

70.  Chattanooga  from  Cameron  Hill 175 

71.  Broad  Street,  Atlanta 177 

72.  Fulton  Bag  and  Cotton  Mills,  Atlanta 178 

73.  Georgia  Institute  of  Technology,  Atlanta 179 

74.  Iron  Furnace,  Birmingham 180 

MAPS 

Eastern  United  States Frontispiece 

New  England Facing  page  4 

New  York       "          "  26 

Pennsylvania        64 

Southern  Appalachian  Region  .     .          "  132 


FROM    TRAIL   TO   RAILWAY 


FROM  TRAIL  TO  RAILWAY 

CHAPTER   I 

BOSTON   AND   THE   BERKSHIRES 

From  the  time  of  the  settlement  of  Massachusetts 
Boston  has  had  a  large  share  of  the  business  of  the 
country.  Her  natural  advantages  are  great.  On  the  one 
hand  there  is  her  harbor,  sheltered  by  many  islands 
from  the  storms  of  the  Atlantic  ;  on  the  other  are  tidal 
rivers  and  level  highways  leading  to  the  interior  of  the 
state.  Emerson,  who  was  born  in  Boston,  wrote  : 

Each  street  leads  downward  to  the  sea, 
Or  landward  to  the  west. 

For  generations,  as  the  city  has  grown,  her  people 
have  been  crowding  back  the  ocean  by  filling  in  the 
shallows,  and  now  her  busy  streets  extend  over  acres  of 
"  made  land,"  while  from  the  south,  the  west,  and  the 
north,  lines  of  railway  connect  her  with  all  parts  of 
America. 

Not  many  years  after  the  War  of  the  Revolution  a 
Boston  merchant  ship  went  around  the  world.  She  took 
on  board  a  native  at  Hawaii,  sold  her  load  of  furs  in 
Canton,  rounded  Cape  Horn,  and  anchored  at  length  in 
Boston  harbor.  So  great  an  achievement  did  this  seem 


2  FROM  TRAIL  TO   RAILWAY 

that  Governor  Hancock  and  the  people  said  fine  things 
and  made  merry. 

This  little  ship  was  eighty-three  feet  long,  and  you 
could  measure  off  seven  or  eight  times  her  length  on  one 
of  the  big  liners  of  to-day.  Later  the  same  ship  set  sail 
again,  and  on  the  west  coast  of  America,  in  one  of  the 
roughest  seas,  her  master,  Captain  Gray,  saw  the  mouth 
of  a  great  river.  He  was  determined  to  enter  it.  Hav 
ing  crossed  the  breakers,  he  sailed  up  the  river  more 
than  twenty  miles,  and  to-day  it  bears  the  name  of  his 
ship,  the  Columbia.  Boston  was  reaching  out  into  the 
wide  world.  Many  years  later  this  discovery  had  much 
to  do  with  securing  the  rights  of  the  United  States  in 
the  Oregon  country  against  the  claims  of  Great  Britain. 

Young  lads  often  went  out  on  these  voyages,  and  the 
training  made  them  strong  men.  There  were  dangers 
on  the  ocean  then  which  to-day  we  do  not  fear,  for 
pirates  still  lay  in  wait  for  merchantmen  and  foreign 
powers  took  liberties  with  American  ships.  One  vessel 
seen  in  Boston  harbor  was  named  CatcJi-mc-if-you-can. 

Many  years  later,  when  Mr.  Samuel  Cunard  of  Halifax 
took  a  contract  to  carry  the  royal  mail  between  Liverpool 
and  America,  there  was  an  immediate  protest  from  the 
Boston  merchants  against  ending  the  voyage  at  Halifax. 
They  urged  the  great  commercial  advantage  of  having 
the  ships  run  westward  to  Boston  after  stopping  at  Hali 
fax,  and  so  powerful  were  these  arguments  that  the  first 
Cunard  liners  came  steaming  into  Massachusetts  bay. 

This  was  not  pleasant  for  New  York  people,  who 
tried  to  show  that  theirs  was  the  better  port.  As  if  to 
help  in  the  fight  against  Boston,  the  harbor  froze  over 


I  ' 


ll. 


1 


4  FROM   TRAIL  TO   RAILWAY 

in  the  winter  of  1844,  and  the  Cunard  ship,  the  Britan 
nia,  could  not  sail.  Determined  to  hold  their  own,  the 
Boston  people  engaged  Frederick  Tudor,  a  great  ex 
porter  of  ice,  to  bring  his  machinery  from  the  fresh 
water  ponds  and  cut  a  way.  He  soon  made  a  lane  of 
open  water,  and  the  Britannia  sailed  out  for  Liverpool. 

While  ocean  trade  was  growing  much  had  been  done 
on  the  land.  Settlements  were  first  made  at  Plymouth, 
Salem,  and  Boston,  and  as  soon  as  possible  the  rough 
forest  trails  joining  these  towns  were  changed  into 
roads.  Many  ferries  and  bridges  were  needed  to  cross 
the  streams,  and  roads  were  carried  back  into  the 
country  as  the  people  settled  farther  from  the  sea. 

After  Providence  was  begun,  in  the  Narragansett 
country,  and  the  rich  lands  along  the  Connecticut  were 
settled,  there  was  need  of  roads  across  the  hills  of  Mas 
sachusetts,  so  that  the  colonists  could  visit  each  other, 
exchange  letters,  and  thus  be  less  exposed  to  danger 
from  savages  in  the  great  American  wilderness. 

The  highway  leading  along  the  east  coast  was  called 
Bay  Road.  A  post  rider  went  between  Boston  and 
New  York  in  1704,  and  a  rough  path  he  had  to  travel. 
It  was  thought  remarkable,  four  years  later,  that  a 
woman,  Madam  Sarah  Knights,  made  that  journey. 
She  afterwards  taught  school  in  Boston,  and  Benjamin 
Franklin  was  one  of  her  pupils.  Somebody  scratched 
these  lines  on  a  window  pane  in  her  schoolroom  : 

Through  many  toils  and  many  frights 
I  have  returned,  poor  Sarah  Knights ; 
Over  great  rocks  and  many  stones, 
God  has  preserved  from  fractured  bones. 


&NETtfieWri1SL*a 


SCALE  OF  MILES 
0        10      20      30     40      50 


BOSTON  AND  MAINE  RAILROAD  (FITCHBURG  DIVISION) 
BOSTON  AND  ALBANY  RAILROAD 


BOSTON  AND  THE   BERKSHIRES  5 

There  is  no  doubt  about  the  "  great  rocks  and  many 
stones  "  of  New  England,  but  around  Boston,  at  any 
rate,  one  usually  sees  them  now  at  a  safe  distance. 

In  western  Massachusetts  is  the  great  Berkshire 
country.  Through  most  of  its  length  the  Housatonic 
river  runs  to  the  southward.  At  the  north  the  Hoosick 
river  flows  from  it,  across  a  corner  of  Vermont,  to  the 
Hudson.  On  the  first  is  beautiful  Pittsfield,  and  on  the 
second  is  busy  North  Adams  with  its  mills.  In  sight 
everywhere  are  the  mountains,  not  very  high  and  usually 
covered  with  forest,  but  sometimes  bold  and  rocky. 
Farther  north  we  should  call  them  the  Green  mountains, 
but  here  we  name  them  the  Berkshires.  The  eastern 
range,  which  separates  the  Housatonic  valley  on  the 
west  from  the  Connecticut  valley  on  the  east,  is  Hoosac 
mountain,  of  which  we  shall  hear  again. 

These  long  ranges  of  mountains  run  from  north  to 
south,  and  while  it  was  easy  to  follow  the  valleys  between 
them,  it  was  hard  to  go  across  them  from  east  to  west 
or  from  west  to  east.  Boston  and  all  the  chief  towns  of 
New  England  lay  eastward,  and  the  rest  of  the  country 
was  west  of  the  mountains.  If  a  Massachusetts  family 
wished  to  settle  in  the  fertile  lands  of  western  New 
York  or  Ohio,  they  had  to  cross  the  mountains.  In  our 
day  the  mountain  region  is  full  of  towns  and  beautiful 
summer  homes,  but  then  it  was  a  wilderness  which  in 
places  was  almost  impassable.  If  it  was  difficult  to 
make  a  single  journey  between  the  Connecticut  river 
and  the  Hudson,  it  was  quite  out  of  the  question  to 
carry  grain  and  fruit  from  the  West  to  Boston,  and  to 
bring  back  in  exchange  the  goods  made  in  her  factories. 


6  FROM   TRAIL   TO    RAILWAY 

Near  Pittsfield,  in  the  heart  of  the  Berkshires,  rises 
the  Westfield  river,  which  has  cut  a  deep  valley  east 
ward  through  the  mountains.  Opposite  the  place  where 
this  stream  enters  the  Connecticut  the  beautiful  city  of 
Springfield  has  now  grown  up,  partly  on  the  low  grounds 
and  partly  on  a  terrace.  It  is  readily  seen  that  the  West- 
field  valley  forms  a  natural  roadway  from  here  westward 


FIG.  2.  UNION  RAILWAY  STATION,  SPRINGFIELD,  MASSACHUSETTS 

to  Pittsfield,  and  on  toward  Albany  and  the  Mohawk  in 
New  York.  We  cannot  say  that  the  valley  was  made 
for  the  cities,  but  the  cities  were  made,  in  part  at  least, 
because  the  valley  was  there. 

The  first  roads  that  improved  on  the  Indian  trails 
were,  of  course,  made  for  wagons.  The  gorge  of  the 
Westfield  was  so  rugged  that  a  hundred  years  ago  it 


BOSTON  AND   THE   BERKSHIRES  7 

seemed  almost  impossible  to  make  a  good  wagon  road 
through  it.  There  were  some  people,  however,  who 
thought  that  it  could  be  done  and  who  determined  to 
do  it.  Their  courage  won,  and  before  long  there  was  a 
good  highway  all  along  the  roaring  river.  The  bowlders 
were  rolled  out  of  the  way,  the  trees  were  cut,  the  road 
bed  was  made,  and  people  could  go  east  and  west  in  the 
stages  without  risk  of  losing  their  lives  or  even  of  break 
ing  their  bones.  This  was  accomplished  soon  after  1825, 
but  it  did  not  solve  all  the  problems  of  the  Massachusetts 
people,  for,  as  we  shall  soon  learn  fully,  the  Erie  canal  was 
finished  in  that  year,  and  a  long  string  of  canal  boats 
began  to  carry  produce  from  the  West  to  New  York. 

The  good  people  of  Boston  watched  all  this  going  on. 
Every  load  of  grain  was  headed  straight  eastward  as  if 
it  were  coming  to  Massachusetts  bay,  thence  to  go  by 
vessel  to  Europe.  But  when  it  reached  the  Hudson  it 
was  sure  to  turn  off  down  that  river  to  help  load  ships 
at  the  piers  of  New  York.  And  New  England  had  only 
a  wagon  road  across  the  mountains  !  A  wagon  road  will 
never  draw  trade  away  from  a  tidal  river,  and  thus  we 
can  understand  why  a  prominent  Massachusetts  man, 
Charles  Francis  Adams,  spoke  of  the  Hudson  as  "  a 
river  so  fatal  to  Boston."  Boston  might  have  all  the 
ships  she  wanted,  but  if  she  could  not  get  cargoes  for 
them  they  would  be  of  no  use.  Shipowners,  seeing 
that  there  was  plenty  of  western  freight  in  New  York, 
sent  their  boats  there.  It  was  indeed  time  that  Boston 
people  began  to  ask  themselves  what  they  could  do. 

They  still  had  ships,  but  these  were  usually  "  down 
East"  coasters,  and  the  noble  vessels  from  far  eastern 


8  FROM   TRAIL   TO    RAILWAY 

ports,  laden  with  spices  and  teas,  silks,  and  all  the  spoils 
of  Europe  and  Asia,  rarely  came  to  Boston,  but  brought 
more  and  greater  loads  to  New  York  and  Baltimore, 
where  they  could  lay  in  corn  and  wheat  for  the  return 
voyage.  Even  the  Cunards  transferred  most  of  their 
boats  and  finally  all  their  mail  steamers  to  New  York. 

The  people  of  Boston  first  said,  "  We  will  build 
another  canal,  up  the  Hoosick  and  down  the  Deerfield 
valley,  and  then  the  canal  boats  will  keep  on  to  the  east." 


FIG.  3.   THE  VALLEY  OF  DEERFIELD  RIVER  AT  CHARLEMONT,  MASSA 
CHUSETTS,  ON  THE  LINE  OF  THE  BOSTON  AND  MAINE  RAILROAD 

As  states  often  do,  they  appointed  a  commission  to  see 
if  the  canal  could  be  built,  and  what  it  would  cost.  But 
what  were  they  to  do  about  Hoosac  mountain,  which 
stood  a  thousand  feet  high,  of  solid  rock,  between  the 
Hoosick  valley  on  the  west  and  the  Deerfield  valley  on 
the  east  ? 


BOSTON  AND   THE    BERKSHIRES  9 

They  decided  that  they  would  tunnel  it  for  the  water 
way.  Rather  strangely  they  thought  it  could  be  done 
for  a  little  less  than  a  million  dollars.  A  wise  engineer 
made  the  survey  for  the  canal,  and  when  he  remarked, 
"  It  seems  as  if  the  finger  of  Providence  had  pointed 
out  this  route  from  the  east  to  the  west,"  some  one  who 
stood  near  replied,  "  It  's  a  great  pity  that  the  same 
finger  was  n't  thrust  through  the  mountain."  The  plans 
for  the  canal  were  finally  given  up,  and  though  many 
years  later  such  a  tunnel  was  made,  it  was  not  for  a 
canal,  nor  was  the  work  done  for  a  million  dollars. 

Every  one  was  talking  now  of  railways,  but  few 
thought  that  rails  could  be  laid  across  the  Berkshires. 
It  was  even  said  in  a  Boston  paper  that  such  a  road 
could  never  be  built  to  Albany  ;  that  it  would  cost  as 
much  to  do  it  as  all  Massachusetts  would  sell  for ;  and 
that  if  it  should  be  finished,  everybody  with  common 
sense  knew  it  would  be  as  useless  as  a  railroad  from 
Boston  to  the  moon.  We  need  not  be  too  hard  on  this 
writer,  for  it  was  five  years  later  when  the  De  Witt 
Clinton  train  climbed  the  hill  from  Albany  and  carried 
its  handful  of  passengers  to  Schenectady. 

One  of  the  friends  of  the  railway  scheme  was  Abner 
Phelps.  When  he  was  a  senior  at  Williams  College,  in 
1806,  he  had  thought  of  it,  for  he  had  heard  about 
the  tram  cars  in  the  English  coal  regions.  In  1826  he 
became  a  member  of  the  legislature  of  Massachusetts, 
and  the  second  day  he  was  there  he  proposed  that  the 
road  should  be  built. 

In  time  the  project  went  through,  but  at  first  it  was 
planned  to  pull  the  cars  with  horses,  and  on  the  down 


10  FROM   TRAIL  TO    RAILWAY 

grades  to  take  the  horses  on  the  cars  and  let  them  ride. 
We  do  not  know  how  it  was  intended  that  the  cars 
should  be  held  back,  for  it  was  long  before  the  invention 
of  air  brakes.  The  line  was  built  to  its  western  end  on 
the  Hudson  in  1842,  and  thus  Boston,  Worcester,  Spring 
field,  and  Albany  were  bound  together  by  iron  rails. 

There  was  only  a  single  track  and  the  grades  were 
heavy.  The  road  brought  little  trade  to  Boston,  and 
most  of  the  goods  from  the  West  still  went  by  way  of 
the  Hudson  to  New  York.  It  was,  however,  a  begin 
ning,  and  it  showed  that  the  mountain  wall  could  be 
crossed. 

The  subject  of  a  Hoosac  tunnel  now  came  up  again. 
It  would  take  a  long  time  to  tell  how  the  tunnel  was 
made  ;  indeed,  it  was  a  long  time  in  making.  It  was 
begun  in  1850  or  soon  afterwards,  and  the  work  went 
slowly,  with  many  stops  and  misfortunes,  so  that  the 
hole  through  the  mountain  was  not  finished  until  Novem 
ber  27,  1873.  On  that  day  the  last  blast  was  set  off 
which  made  the  opening  from  the  east  to  the  west  side  . 
and  the  first  regular  passenger  train  ran  through  July  8, 
1875,  fifty  years  after  it  had  been  planned  to  make  a 
canal  under  the  mountain. 

In  order  to  help  on  the  work  the  engineers  sunk  a 
shaft  a  thousand  feet  deep  from  the  top  of  the  mountain 
to  the  level  of  the  tunnel,  and  from  the  bottom  worked 
east  and  west.  This  gave  them  four  faces,  or  " headings," 
on  which  to  work,  instead  of  two,  and  hastened  the  finish 
ing.  The  whole  cost  was  about  fourteen  million  dollars. 

It  took  great  skill  to  sink  the  shaft  on  just  the  right 
line,  and  to  make  the  parts  of  the  tunnel  exactly  meet, 


[J 


12 


FROM    TRAIL  TO   RAILWAY 


as  the  men  worked  in  from  opposite  directions.  They 
brought  the  ends  together  under  the  mountain  with  a 
difference  of  only  five  sixteenths  of  an  inch  !  You  can 
measure  this  on  a  finger  nail  and  see  how  much  it  is. 
The  tremendous  task  was  successfully  accomplished, 
and  Boston  was  no  longer  shut  off  from  the  rest  of  the 
country  by  the  mountains. 

The  end  of  it  all  is  not  that  Boston  has  won  all  the 
ships  away  from  New  York,  but  that  gradually  she  has 


FIG.  5.  THE  SOUTH  STATION,  BOSTON 

been  getting  her  share.  Now  she  has  great  Cunarders, 
White  Star  Liners,  and  the  Leyland  boats,  —  all  giant 
ships  sailing  for  Liverpool, — and  many  other  stately 
vessels  bound  for  southern  ports  or  foreign  lands.  Now 
you  may  see  in  Boston  harbor  not  a  forest  of  masts  but 
great  funnels  painted  to  show  the  lines  to  which  the 
boats  belong,  and  marking  a  grander  commerce  than  that 
which  put  out  for  the  Indies  long  years  ago ;  for  to-day 
Boston  is  the  second  American  port.  The  great  freight 


BOSTON  AND   THE   BERKSHIRES  13 

yards  of  the  railways  are  close  upon  the  docks,  and 
travelers  from  the  West  may  come  into  either  of  two 
great  stations,  one  of  which  is  the  largest  railway  ter 
minal  in  the  world.  In  and  about  Boston  are  more  than  a 
million  people,  reaching  out  with  one  hand  for  the  riches 
of  the  great  land  to  the  west,  and  with  the  other  passing 
them  over  the  seas  to  the  nations  on  the  farther  side. 

Man  has  taken  a  land  of  dense  forests,  stony  hills,  and 
wild  valleys,  and  subdued  it.  It  is  dotted  with  cities, 
crossed  by  roads,  and  is  one  of  the  great  gateways  of 
North  America. 


CHAPTER  II 

PIONEERS  OF  THE   MOHAWK  AND  THE   HUDSON 

If  a  stranger  from  a  distant  land  should  come  to  New 
York,  he  might  take  an  elevated  train  at  the  Battery 
and  ride  to  the  upper  end  of  Harlem.  He  would  then 
have  seen  Manhattan  island,  so  named  by  the  Indians, 
who  but  three  hundred  years  ago  built  their  wigwams 
there  and  paddled  their  canoes  in  the  waters  where  great 
ships  now  wait  for  their  cargoes.  If  the  visitor  should 
stay  for  a  time,  he  might  find  that  Harlem  used  to  be 
spelled  Haarlem,  from  a  famous  old  town  in  Holland. 
He  might  walk  through  Bleecker  street,  or  Cortlandt 
street,  or  see  Stuyvesant  square,  and  learn  that  these 
hard  names  belonged  to  old  Dutch  families  ;  and  if  he 
studied  history,  he  would  find  that  the  town  was  once 
called  New  Amsterdam  and  was  settled  by  Dutchmen 
from  Holland.  They  named  the  river  on  the  west  of  the 
island  the  Great  North  river,  to  distinguish  it  from  the 
Delaware,  or  Great  South  river,  and  they  planned  to 
keep  all  the  land  about  these  two  streams  and  to  call 
it  New  Netherland. 

Rocks  and  trees  covered  most  of  Manhattan  island  at 
that  time,  but  the  Dutch  had  a  small  village  at  its  south 
end,  where  they  built  a  fort  and  set  up  windmills,  which 
ground  the  corn  and  made  the  place  look  like  a  town  in 

M 


PIONEERS   OF  THE   MOHAWK  AND    HUDSON      15 

Holland.  The  Indians  did  not  like  the  windmills  with 
their  "big  teeth  biting  the  corn  in  pieces,"  but  they  were 
usually  friendly  with  the  settlers,  sometimes  sitting  before 
the  fireplaces- in  the  houses  and  eating  supawn,  or  mush 
and  milk,  with  their  white  friends.  Little  did  the  Indian 
dream  what  a  bargain  he  offered  to  the  white  man  when 
he  consented  to  sell  the  whole  island  for  a  sum  equal  to 
twenty-four  dollars  ;  and  the  Dutchman,  to  do  him  jus 
tice,  was  equally  ignorant. 

All  this  came  about  because  Henry  Hudson  with  a 
Dutch  vessel,  the  Half  Moon,  had  sailed  into  the  harbor 
in  1609,  and  had  explored  the  river  for  a  long  distance 
from  its  mouth.  Hudson  was  an  Englishman,  but  with 
most  people  he  has  had  to  pass  for  a  Dutchman.  He 
has  come  down  in  stories  as  Hendrick  instead  of  Henry, 
no  doubt  because  he  commanded  a  ship  belonging  to  a 
Dutch  company,  and  because  a  Dutch  colony  was  soon 
planted  at  the  mouth  of  the  river  which  he  discovered. 

Hudson  spent  a  month  of  early  autumn  about  Man 
hattan  and  on  the  river  which  afterwards  took  his  name. 
Sailing  was  easy,  for  the  channel  is  cut  so  deep  into  the 
land  that  the  tides,  which  rise  and  fall  on  the  ocean 
border  by  day  and  night,  push  far  up  the  Hudson  and 
make  it  like  an  inland  sea.  In  what  we  call  the  High 
lands  Hudson  found  the  river  narrow,  with  rocky  cliffs 
rising  far  above  him.  Beyond  he  saw  lowlands  covered 
with  trees,  and  stretching  west  to  the  foot  of  the  Catskill 
mountains.  He  went  at  least  as  far  as  the  place  where 
Albany  now  stands,  but  there  he  found  the  water  shallow 
and  turned  his  ship  about,  giving  up  the  idea  of  reaching 
the  Indies  by  going  that  way.  He  did  not  know  that  a 


16  FROM   TRAIL   TO    RAILWAY 

few  miles  to  the  west  a  deep  valley  lies  open  through 
the  mountains,  a  valley  which  is  now  full  of  busy  people 
and  is  more  important  for  travel  and  trade  than  a  dozen 
northwest  passages  to  China  would  be. 


FIG.  6.   HKNRY  HUDSON 


It  was  not  long  before  this  valley  which  leads  to  the 
west  was  found,  and  by  a  real  Dutchman.  Only  five  years 
after  Hudson's  voyage  Dutch  traders  built  a  fort  near 
the  spot  where  Albany  now  stands.  Shortly  afterwards, 


PIONEERS    OF   THE    MOHAWK  AND    HUDSON      17 

in  1624,  the  first  settlers  came  and  founded  Fort  Orange, 
which  is  now  Albany.  Arent  Van  Curler  came  over 
from  Holland  in  1630  and  made  his  home  near  Fort 
Orange.  He  was  an  able  man  and  became  friendly  with 
the  Indians.  They  called  him  "  Brother  Corlear  "  and 
spoke  of  him  as  their  "good  friend."  A  few  years  ago 
a  diary  kept  by  Van  Curler  was  found  in  an  old  Dutch 
garret,  where  it  had  lain  for  two  hundred  and  sixty 
years.  It  told  the  story  of  a  journey  that  he  made  in 
1634,  only  four  years  after  he  came  to  America.  Setting 
out  on  December  11,  he  traveled  up  the  valley  of  the 
Mohawk  until  he  reached  the  home  of  the  Oneida  In 
dians  in  central  New  York.  He  stayed  with  them  nearly 
two  weeks,  and  then  returned  to  Fort  Orange,  where 
he  arrived  on  January  19.  This  is  the  earliest  record  of 
a  white  man's  journey  through  a  region  which  now  con 
tains  large  towns  and  is  traversed  by  many  railway  trains 
every  day  in  the  year. 

No  one  knows  how  long  there  had  been  Indians  and 
Indian  trails  in  the  Mohawk  valley.  These  trails  Van 
Curler  followed,  often  coming  upon  some  of  the  red  men 
themselves,  and  visiting  them  in  a  friendly  way.  They, 
as  well  as  the  white  settlers  who  followed  them,  chose 
the  flat,  rich  lands  along  the  river,  for  here  it  was  easy 
to  beat  a  path,  and  with  their  bark  canoes  they  could 
travel  and  fish.  The  Indians  entertained  Van  Curler 
with  baked  pumpkins,  turkey,  bear  meat,  and  venison. 
As  the  turkey  is  an  American  bird,  we  may  be  sure  that 
it  was  new  to  the  Dutch  explorer. 

These  Indians,  with  whom  Van  Curler  and  all  the  New 
York  colonists  had  much  to  do,  were  of  several  tribes, 


18  FROM   TRAIL   TO    RAILWAY 

-  the  Mohawks,  Oneidas,  Onondagas,  Cayugas,  and 
Senecas.  All  together  they  were  known  as  the  Iroquois 
(ir-o-kwoi'),  or  Iroquois  Nation,  a  kind  of  confederation 
which  met  in  council  and  went  forth  together  to  war. 
They  called  their  five-fold  league  The  Long  House,  from 
the  style  of  dwelling  which  was  common  among  them, 

—  a  long  house  in  which  as  many  as  twenty  families 
sometimes  lived.  The  Iroquois  built  villages,  cultivated 
plots  of  land,  and  sometimes  planted  apple  orchards. 
They  were  often  eloquent  orators  and  always  fierce 
fighters.  Among  the  surrounding  tribes  they  were  greatly 
feared.  They  sailed  on  lake  Ontario  and  lake  Erie  in 
their  birch-bark  canoes,  and  they  followed  the  trails  far 
eastward  down  the  Mohawk  valley.  Before  the  white 
men  came  these  fierce  warriors  occasionally  invaded 
New  England,  to  the  terror  of  the  weaker  tribes.  Some 
times  they  followed  up  their  conquests  by  exacting  a 
tribute  of  wampum.  After  Fort  Orange  was  founded 
they  went  there  with  their  packs  of  beaver  skins  and 
other  furs  to  trade  for  clothes  and  trinkets. 

In  fact  the  white  man's  principal  interest  for  many 
years  was  to  barter  for  furs.  The  Dutch,  and  soon  after 
wards  the  English,  bid  for  the  trade  from  their  settle 
ments  on  the  Hudson,  and  the  French  did  the  same 
from  their  forts  on  the  St.  Lawrence  and  the  Great 
Lakes.  Thus  there  was  much  letter  writing  and  much 
fighting  among  the  colonists,  while  each  side  tried  to 
make  friends  of  the  Indians  and  get  the  whole  of  the 
fur  trade.  The  result  was  that  either  in  war  or  in 
trade  the  white  men  and  the  savages  were  always  going 
up  and  down  the  Mohawk  valley,  which  thus  was  a 


PIONEERS   OF   THE   MOHAWK  AND   HUDSON      19 

well-traveled  path  long  before  there  were  turnpike  roads, 
canals,  or  steam  cars. 

When  Van  Curler  made  his  journey  into  the  Indian 
country,  he  did-  not  reach  the  Mohawk  river  at  once  on 
leaving  Fort  Orange,  but  traveled  for  about  sixteen 
miles  across  a  sandy  and  half-barren  stretch  of  scrubby 
pine  woods.  He  came  down  to  the  river  where  its  rich 
bottom  lands  spread  out  widely  and  wfrere  several  large 
islands  are  inclosed  by  parts  of  the  stream.  South  and 
east  of  these  flats  are  the  sand  barrens,  and  on  the  west 
are  high  hills  through  which,  by  a  deep,  narrow  gap,  the 
Mohawk  flows.  The  Indians  called  this  place  "  Scho- 
nowe,"  or  "gateway."  It  was  well  named,  for  entering 
by  this  gate  one  can  go  to  the  foot  of  the  Rocky  moun 
tains  without  climbing  any  heights. 

A  few  years  before  his  death  Van  Curler  led  a  small 
band  of  colonists  from  Fort  Orange,  bought  the  "great 
flats  "  from  the  Mohawk  Indians,  and  founded  a  town, 
calling  it  Schenectady,  which  is  the  old  Indian  name 
changed  in  its  spelling.  No  easy  time  did  these  settlers 
have,  for  theirs  was  for  many  years  the  frontier  town  and 
they  never  knew  when  hostile  savages  might  come  down 
upon  them  to  burn  their  houses  and  take  their  scalps. 
In  1690,  twenty-eight  years  after  the  town  was  founded, 
a  company  of  French  and  Indians  from  Montreal  sur 
prised  Schenectady  in  the  night,  burned  most  of  the 
houses,  and  killed  about  sixty  of  the  people,  taking 
others  captive.  But  Dutchmen  rarely  give  up  an  under 
taking,  and  they  soon  rebuilt  their  town.  It  was  an 
important  place,  for  here  was  the  end  of  the  "carry" 
over  the  pine  barrens  from  the  Hudson,  and  here  began 


20 


FROM   TRAIL   TO    RAILWAY 


the  navigation  of  the  river,  which  for  a  hundred  years 
was  the  best  means  of  carrying  supplies  up  the  valley 
and  into  central  New  York. 

The  traveler  of  to-day  on  the  New  York  Central  Rail 
way  sees  on  Van  Curler's  "  great  flats  "  the  flourishing 
city  of  Schenectady,  with  its  shops  and  houses,  its  col 
lege,  and  its  vast  facto 
ries  for  the  manufacture 
of  locomotives  and  elec 
trical  supplies. 

It  is  true  that  the 
Dutch  pioneers  played 
an  important  part  in  the 
early  history  of  the  state 
and  are  still  widely  repre 
sented  by  their  descend 
ants  in  the  Mohawk  val 
ley,  but  the  leading  spirit 
of  colonial  days  on  the 
river  was  a  native  of  Ire 
land  who  came  when  a 
young  man  to  manage 

his  uncle's  estates  in  America.  This  was  in  1738,  nearly 
fifty  years  after  the  Schenectady  massacre.  The  young 
man,  who  was  in  the  confidence  of  the  governor  of  New 
York  and  of  the  king  as  well,  is  known  to  all  readers  of 
American  history  as  Sir  William  Johnson. 

He  built  a  fine  stone  mansion  a  short  distance  west 
of  the  present  city  of  Amsterdam  and  lived  there  many 
years.  He  also  founded  Johnstown,  a  few  miles  to  the 
north,  now  a  thriving  little  city.  He  dealt  honestly  with 


FIG.  7.  SIR  WILLIAM  JOHNSON 
See  Fort  Johnson,  Fig.  9 


PIONEERS   OF   THE   MOHAWK  AND    HUDSON     21 

the  Indians,  when  many  tried  to  get  their  lands  by 
fraud,  and  he  served  as  a  high  officer  in  the  French 
and  Indian  wars. 

As  the  Dutch  settled  the  lower  Mohawk  valley,  so 
the  upper  parts  were  taken  up  and  the  forests  cleared 
by  Yankees  from  New  England.  One  of  these  was 
Hugh  White,  a  sturdy  man  with  several  grown  children. 
He  left  Middletown,  Connecticut,  in  1784,  and  came  by 
water  to  Albany,  sending  one  of  his  sons  overland  to 
drive  two  pair  of  oxen.  Father  and  son  met  in  Albany 
and  went  together  across  the  sands  to  Schenectady, 
where  they  bought  a  boat  to  take  some  of  the  goods  up 
the  river.  Four  miles  west  of  where  Utica  now  stands 
they  stopped,  cut  a  few  trees,  and  built  a  hut  to  shelter 
them  until  they  could  raise  crops  and  have  a  better 
home.  Thus  the  ancient  village  of  Whitesboro  was 
founded.  White  was  one  of  many  hardy  and  brave  men 
who  settled  in  central  New  York  at  that  time,  and  they 
doubtless  thought  that  they  had  gone  a  long  way  "out 
West."  Certainly  their  journey  took  more  time  than  the 
emigrant  would  now  need  to  reach  California  or  Oregon. 

To  cut  the  trees,  build  cabins,  guard  against  the  sav 
ages,  and  get  enough  to  eat  and  wear  gave  the  settlers 
plenty  to  do.  Only  the  simplest  ways  of  living  were 
possible.  Until  a  grist  mill  was  built  they  often  used 
samp  mortars,  such  as  the  Indians  made.  They  took  a 
section  of  white  ash  log  three  feet  long,  and  putting 
coals  of  fire  on  one  end,  kept  them  burning  with  a  hand 
bellows  until  the  hole  was  deep  enough  to  hold  the 
corn,  which  was  then  pounded  for  their  meals  of  hominy. 
By  and  by  a  mill  was  built,  and  here  settlers  often  came 


22  FROM    TRAIL   TO    RAILWAY 

from  a  distance  of  many  miles,  sometimes  carrying  their 
grists  on  their  backs.  A  dozen  years  after  White  came, 
General  William  Floyd  set  up  another  mill  in  the  northern 
part  of  what  is  now  Oneida  county.  He  was  one  of  the 
signers  of  the  Declaration  of  Independence. 

One  settler  cleared  several  acres  and  planted  corn 
with  pumpkin  seeds  sprinkled  in.  The  pigeons  pulled 
up  all  the  corn,  but  hundreds  of  great  pumpkins  grew 
and  ripened.  Since  the  crop  was  hardly  enough,  how 
ever,  for  either  men  or  beasts,  the  latter  had  to  be  fed 
the  next  winter  on  the  small  top  boughs  of  the  elm, 
maple,  and  bass  wood. 

Much  use  was  made  of  the  river,  for  the  only  roads 
were  Indian  paths  through  the  woods  on  the  river  flats. 
People  and  freight  were  carried  in  long,  light  boats 
suited  to  river  traffic  and  known  as  bateaux  (ba-tos'). 
These  could  be  propelled  with  oars,  but  poles  were 
necessary  going  upstream  against  a  stiff  current.  It 
was  impossible  to  go  up  the  Mohawk  from  the  Hudson 
above  Albany,  on  account  of  the  great  falls  at  Cohoes; 
hence  the  long  carry  to  Schenectady.  From  that  place, 
by  hard  work,  the  boatmen  could  make  their  way  up  to 
Little  Falls,  where  the  water  descends  forty  feet  in  roar 
ing  rapids.  Here  the  loads  and  the  bateaux  had  to  be 
carried  along  the  banks  to  the  still  water  above,  where, 
with  many  windings  and  doublings  on  their  course,  the 
voyagers  could  reach  the  Oneida  Carrying  Place,  or  Fort 
Stanwix.  There  they  unloaded  again,  and  for  a  mile  or 
more  tramped  across  low  ground  to  Wood  creek,  a  little 
stream  flowing  into  Oneida  lake,  and  thence  into  Os- 
wego  river  and  lake  Ontario.  The  city  of  Rome  stands 


PIONEERS   OF   THE   MOHAWK  AND   HUDSON     23 

exactly  on  the  road  followed  by  the  "carry."  This  was 
an  important  place,  and  was  called  by  the  Dutch  Trow 
Plat,  while  to  the  Indians  it  was  De-o-wain-sta,  "  the 
place  where  canoes  are  carried  across."  Several  forts 
were  built  there,  of  which  the  most  famous  was  Fort 
Stanwix.  We  should  think  Wood  creek  a  difficult  bit 
of  navigation.  It  was  a  small  stream,  very  crooked,  and 


FIG.  8.   GENESEK  STREET,  UTICA 
Part  of  the  old  denesee  road 

often  interrupted  by  fallen  trees.  In  times  of  low  water 
the  boats  were  dragged  up  and  even  down  the  creek  by 
horses  walking  in  the  water. 

The  first  merchant  of  old  Fort  Schuyler  (Utica)  was 
John  Post,  who  had  served  his  country  well  through  the 
Revolution.  In  1790  he  brought  hither  his  wife,  three 
little  children,  and  a  carpenter  from  Schenectady,  after 
a  voyage  of  about  nine  days  up  the  river.  Near  the 
long-used  fording  place  he  built  a  store,  at  the  foot  of 


24  FROM   TRAIL  TO   RAILWAY 

what  is  now  Genesee  street.  Here  he  supplied  the  sim 
ple  needs  of  the  few  families  in  the  new  hamlet,  and 
bought  furs  and  ginseng  of  the  Indians,  giving  in  ex 
change  paint,  powder,  shot,  cloth,  beads,  mirrors,  and, 
it  must  be  added,  rum  also.  Thus  the  fact  that  the  river 
was  shallow  at  this  point  and  could  be  passed  without  a 
bridge  or  a  boat  led  to  the  founding  of  the  city  of  Utica. 

The  first  regular  mail  reached  the  settlement  in  1793, 
the  post  rider  being  allowed  twenty-eight  hours  to  come 
up  from  Canajoharie,  a  distance  of  about  forty  miles, 
now  traversed  by  many  trains  in  much  less  than  an 
hour.  On  one  occasion  the  Fort  Schuyler  settlement 
received  six  letters  in  one  mail.  The  people  would 
hardly  believe  this  astonishing  fact  until  John  Post,  who 
had  been  made  postmaster,  assured  them  that  it  was 
true.  Post  established  stages  and  lines  of  boats  to 
Schenectady,  and  soon  had  a  large  business,  for  people 
were  pouring  into  western  New  York  to  settle  upon  its 
fertile  lands. 

All  the  boats  did  not  go  down  to  Oswego  and  lake 
Ontario.  Some  turned  and  entered  the  Seneca  river, 
following  its  slow  and  winding  waters  to  the  country 
now  lying  between  Syracuse  and  Rochester.  But  these 
boats  were  not  equal  to  the  traffic,  for  the  new  farms 
were  producing  grain  to  be  transported,  and  the  people 
needed  many  articles  from  the  older  towns  on  the 
Atlantic  coast.  Hence  about  a  dozen  years  after  Hugh 
White  built  his  first  cabin  by  the  river,  the  state  legis 
lature  took  up  the  question  of  transportation  and  built  a 
great  road,  a  hundred  miles  long,  from  Fort  Schuyler,  or 
the  future  Utrca,  to  Geneva,  at  the  foot  of  Seneca  lake. 


PIONEERS    OF   THE    MOHAWK  AND   HUDSON      25 

The  road  as  laid  out  was  six  rods  wide.  It  was 
improved  for  a  width  of  four  rods  by  the  use  of  gravel 
and  logs  where  the  ground  was  soft  and  swampy,  as 
much  of  it  was  in  those  days,  being  flat  and  shaded  by 
trees.  Over  the  famous  Genesee  road,  as  it  was  called, 
thousands  of  people  went  not  only  to  the  rich  valley  of  the 
Genesee  in  western  New  York  but  also  on  to  Ohio,  and 
even  to  the  prairies  of  the  Mississippi  river.  Genesee 
street  in  Utica  and  Genesee  street  in  Syracuse  are  parts 
of  this  road.  The  historian  tells  of  it  as  a  triumph,  for 
it  was  an  Indian  path  in  June,  and  before  September 
was  over  a  stage  had  started  at  Fort  Schuyler,  and  on 
the  afternoon  of  the  third  day  had  deposited  its  four 
passengers  at  the  hotel  in  Geneva.  After  this  wagons 
and  stages  began  to  run  frequently  between  Albany  and 
Geneva.  A  wagon  could  carry  fourteen  barrels  of  flour 
eastward,  and  in  about  a  month  could  return  to  Geneva 
from  Albany  with  a  load  of  needed  supplies.  In  five 
weeks,  one  winter,  five  hundred  and  seventy  sleighs 
carrying  families  passed  through  Geneva  to  lands  farther 
west. 

Geneva  was  quite  a  metropolis  in  those  days,  when 
there  was  nothing  but  woods  where  Syracuse  and 
Rochester  now  are.  Regular  markets  were  held  there, 
for  there  were  fine  farms  and  orchards  about  the  beauti 
ful  shores  of  Seneca  lake.  It  is  recorded  as  remarkable 
that  one  settler  had  "  dressed  up  "  an  old  Indian  orchard 
and  made  "one  hundred  barrels  of  cyder." 

We  might  think  that  the  founders  of  the  city  of 
Rochester  would  have  come  in  by  the  Genesee  road, 
but  they  did  not.  Far  to  the  south,  at  Hagerstown  in 


26 


FROM    TRAIL  TO    RAILWAY 


Maryland,  a  country  already  old,  lived  Colonel  Rochester. 
He  heard  of  the  Genesee  lands  and  at  last  bought,  with 
his  partners,  a  hundred  acres  by  the  falls,  where  the  city 
now  stands.  When  the  little  family  procession  passed 
down  the  street  and  entered  upon  the  long  journey  up 
the  Susquehanna  valley  to  western  New  York,  Roches 
ter's  friends  in  Hagerstown  wept  to  see  him  go.  They 


FIG.  9.   OLD  FORT  JOHNSON,  AMSTERDAM,  NEW  YORK 
Built  by  Sir  William  Johnson,  1742 

thought  that  he  had  thrown  his  money  away  in  buying 
swamp  lands  where  only  mosquitoes,  rattlesnakes,  and 
bears  could  live,  but  he  saw  farther  than  they  did.  If 
he  had  been  unwilling  to  take  any  risk,  he  would  never 
have  laid  out  the  first  streets  of  the  prosperous  city 
which  now  bears  his  name. 

Syracuse,  like  Utica  and  Rochester,  had  its  own  way 
of  beginning.    We  can  truly  say  that  at  first  salt  made 


CAN        A        D       A 


X     I      \ 


SCALE  OF  MILES 


0     10   20         40         60         80         100 

NEW  YORK,  LAKE  ERIE  AND  WESTERN  RAILROAD       

DELAWARE,  LACKAWANNA  AND  WESTERN  RAILROAD  

NEW  YORK  CENTRAL  AND  HUDSON  RIVER  RAILROAD  

NEW  YORK,  ONTARIO  AND  WESTERN  RAILROAD          

DELAWARE  AND  HUDSON  RAILROAD  .»••*«»»». 

ERIE  CANAL  (old  location) 


PIONEERS    OF   THE    MOHAWK  AND    HUDSON     27 

the  city.  The  beds  of  salt  are  not  directly  under  Syra 
cuse,  but  are  in  the  hills  not  far  away.  The  water  from 
the  rains  and  springs  dissolves  some  of  this  salt,  and  as 
it  flows  down  it  fills  the  gravels  in  and  around  the  town. 
While  all  was  yet  forest  the  Indian  women  had  made 
salt  from  the  brine  which  oozed  up  in  the  springs.  So 
long  ago  as  1770,  five  years  before  the  Revolution,  the 
Delaware  Indians  went  after  Onondaga  salt,  and  a  little 
of  it  was  now  and  then  brought  down  to  Albany.  Some 
times  it  was  sold  far  down  the  St.  Lawrence  in  Quebec. 

The  pioneers  first  made  salt  there  in  1788.  This  was 
several  years  before  the  Genesee  road  was  cut  through 
the  woods.  One  of  these  men,  a  Mr.  Danforth,  whose 
name  a  suburb  of  Syracuse  now  bears,  used  to  put  his 
coat  on  his  head  for  a  cushion  and  on  that  carry  out  a 
large  kettle  to  the  springs.  He  would  put  a  pole  across 
crotched  sticks,  hang  up  the  kettle,  and  go  to  work  to 
make  salt.  When  he  had  made  enough  for  the  time  he 
would  hide  his  kettle  in  the  bushes  and  bring  home  his 
salt.  By  and  by  so  many  hundreds  of  bushels  were  made 
by  the  settlers  that  the  government  of  the  state  framed 
laws  to  regulate  the  making  and  selling  of  the  salt,  and 
as  time  went  on  a  town  arose  and  grew  into  a  city. 
Many  years  later  rock  salt  was  found  deep  down  under 
the  surface  farther  west,  and  since  that  discovery  the 
business  of  Syracuse  has  become  more  and  more  varied 
in  character. 

The  history  of  the  state  of  New  York  shows  well 
how  the  New  World  was  settled  along  the  whole  Atlantic 
coast.  The  white  men  from  Europe  found  first  Manhat 
tan  island  and  the  harbor.  Then  they  followed  the  lead 


28  FROM    TRAIL   TO    RAILWAY 

of  a  river  and  made  a  settlement  that  was  to  be  Albany. 
Still  they  let  a  river  guide  them,  this  time  the  Mohawk, 
and  it  led  them  westward.  They  pushed  their  boats  up 
the  stream,  and  on  land  they  widened  the  trails  of  the 
red  men.  Near  its  head  the  Mohawk  valley  led  out  into 
the  wide,  rich  plains  south  and  east  of  lake  Ontario. 
Soon  there  were  so  many  people  that  a  good  road 
became  necessary.  When  the  good  road  was  made  it 
brought  more  people,  and  thus  the  foundations  of  the 
Empire  State  were  laid. 


CHAPTER    III 

ORISKANY,  A   BATTLE   OF  THE   REVOLUTION 

About  halfway  between  old  Fort  Schuyler,  or  Utica, 
and  Fort  Stanwix,  which  is  now  Rome,  is  the  village  of 
Oriskany.  A  mile  or  two  west  of  this  small  town,  in  a 
field  south  of  the  Mohawk  river,  stands  a  monument 
raised  in  memory  of  a  fierce  battle  fought  on  that  slope  in 
the  year  following  the  Declaration  of  Independence.  On 
the  pedestal  are  four  tablets  in  bronze,  one  of  which  shows 
a  wounded  general  sitting  on  the  ground  in  the  woods, 
with  his  hand  raised,  giving  orders  to  his  men.  The  time 
was  1777,  the  strife  was  the  battle  of  Oriskany,  and  the 
brave  and  suffering  general  was  Nicholas  Herkimer. 

On  another  of  the  tablets  is  this  inscription  : 


HKRE  WAS  FOUGHT 

THK  BATTLE  OK  ORISKANY 

ON  THE  6TH  DAY  OK  AUGUST,  1777. 

HERE  BRITISH  INVASION  WAS  CHECKED  AND  THWARTED. 

HERE  GENERAL  NICHOLAS  HERKIMER, 

INTREPID  LEADER  OK  THE  AMERICAN  FORCES, 

THOUGH  MORTALLY  WOUNDED  KEPT  HIS  COMMAND  OK  THE  KIGHT 

TILL  THE  ENEMY  HAD  KLED. 

THE  LIKE  BLOOD  OK  MORE  THAN 

TWO  HUNDRED  PATRIOT  HEROES 

MADE  THIS  BATTLE  GROUND 

SACRED  FOREVER. 


29 


30  FROM   TRAIL  TO    RAILWAY 

After  the  battle  Herkimer  was  carried  down  the 
valley  to  his  home,  where  a  few  days  later  he  died. 
On  the  field  he  had  calmly  lighted  his  pipe  and  smoked 
it  as  he  gave  his  orders,  refusing  to  be  carried  to  a  safe 
place  and  saying,  "  I  will  face  the  enemy."  If  the  bat 
tle  has  its  monument,  so  the  hero  that  won  it  has  his, 
and  the  traveler  on  the  New  York  Central  Railway  can 


FIG.  10.   ORISKANY  BATTLE  MONUMENT,  A  FEW  MILES 
WEST  OF  UTICA 

see  both,  but  thirty  miles  apart,  the  one  at  Oriskany,  the 
other  a  short  distance  down  the  valley  from  Little  Falls. 
Herkimer  was  not  a  trained  soldier,  but  a  plain  farmer 
of  the  valley.  His  letters  and  military  orders  show  us 
that  he  could  spell  as  poorly  as  any  of  his  neighbors,  and 
that  is  saying  a  good  deal.  His  army  was  made  up  of 
these  same  simple  neighbors,  who,  though  they  did  not 


ORISKANY,  A  BATTLE  OF  THE  REVOLUTION      31 

know  much  about  soldierly  marching,  were  good  shots 
and  hard  hitters,  fighting  not  for  pay  but  to  save  their 
liberty  and  to  protect  their  homes  from  the  cruel  savages. 

The  names  of  many  of  these  men  are  on  the  battle 
monument,  —  names  such  as  Groot,  Petrie,  Dunckel, 
Klock,  Kraus,  Sammons,  Schnell,  Van  Horn,  and  Zim 
merman.  We  do  not  need  to  be  told  that  these  were  not 
men  of  English  blood  ;  indeed,  many  of  them  belonged 
to  those  same  Dutch  families  which  we  saw  settling  in 
the  Hudson  and  Mohawk  valleys.  And  some,  like  the 
last  one,  were  not  Dutch  but  German,  and  their  ancestors 
came  not  from  Holland  but  from  a  land  farther  up  the 
Rhine.  They  had  been  driven  out  by  the  persecutions 
of  one  of  the  French  kings  and  had  come  to  America. 
They  had  had  a  hard  time,  suffering  much  from  task 
masters,  from  poverty,  and  from  the  savages,  until  finally 
they  had  gone  farther  west  in  the  Mohawk  valley  and  had 
received  good  lands  lying  eastward  from  Utica.  There 
they  became  comfortable  and  prosperous.  They  answered 
promptly  the  brave  Herkimer's  call  to  arms,  and  many  of 
them  gave  their  lives  for  home  and  country  at  Oriskany. 

We  must  now  tell  the  other  side  of  the  story  and 
see  who  the  invaders  were  and  where  they  came  from. 
In  Revolutionary  days  nearly  all  the  people  of  New 
York  were  in  its  two  great  valleys.  One  could  go  up 
the  Hudson  from  New  York,  pass  Albany  and  Fort 
Edward,  and,  without  finding  high  ground,  enter  the 
valley  of  lake  Champlain  and  go  down  to  Montreal 
on  the  St.  Lawrence.  Here,  then,  was  an  easy  valley 
road  from  the  sea  at  New  York  into  Canada.  Coming 
either  way,  one  could  turn  off  to  the  west  at  Fort 


32  FROM   TRAIL   TO    RAILWAY 

Orange  or  Albany  and  go  up  the  Mohawk  and  down  to 
Oswego  on  lake  Ontario.  In  these  two  valleys  were  all 
the  farms,  the  towns,  and  of  course  the  forts.  There 
were  forts  at  Oswego  and  where  Rome,  Utica,  and 
Albany  are  ;  at  Fort  Edward,  Fort  Ann,  Ticonderoga, 
and  many  other  places,  making  a  chain  of  defenses  in 
these  valleys.  West  of  the  Hudson  and  south  of  the 
Mohawk  were  the  high,  rough  woods  of  the  Catskills  ; 
while  west  of  lake  Champlain  and  north  of  the  Mohawk 
were  the  rugged  Adirondacks,  without  roads  or  clear 
ings.  And  because  the  roads,  the  homes,  and  the  forts 
were  in  the  valleys,  we  shall  almost  always  find  the 
armies  and  the  fighting  there. 

This  will  help  us  to  understand  the  plan  which  the 
British  made  in  1777,  by  which  they  felt  sure  of  crush 
ing  the  rebellion.  The  year  before  they  had  to  leave 
Boston  and  had  come  around  to  New  York.  New  York 
was  not  so  large  as  Philadelphia  then,  but  it  was  an 
important  place,  for  it  was  the  key  to  the  Hudson 
valley.  The  British  generals  decided  to  send  one  army 
up  the  Hudson  to  destroy  the  forts  and  beat  back  the 
colonists.  This  army  was  under  General  Howe.  Another 
army,  commanded  by  General  Burgoyne,  was  to  come 
from  the  St.  Lawrence  up  lake  Champlain  and  through 
the  woods  by  Fort  Edward  to  Albany.  Burgoyne  was  a 
brave  officer,  but  he  was  conceited,  and  he  felt  too  sure 
that  he  could  do  his  part  easily.  He  was  confident  that 
when  he  marched  through  the  country  many  colonists 
would  run  to  place  themselves  under  the  English  flag. 
In  a  few  weeks  he  learned  that  these  backwoods  Amer 
icans  were  quite  ready  to  meet  and  give  battle  to  the 


OF 

UNIVER 


ORISKANY.  A  BATTLE  OF  THE  REV 


combined  forces  of  the  British  regulars,  the  hired  Ger 
man  soldiers,  and  the  Indians  with  whom  they  were 
in  league. 

There  was  yet  a  third  division  in  this  campaign.  A 
British  force  under  General  St.  Leger  had  come  up  the 
St.  Lawrence  and  lake  Ontario  to  Oswego.  St.  Leger 


FIG.  ii.    GENERAL  NICHOLAS  HERKIMER  DIRECTING  THE 
BATTLE  OF  ORISKANY 

also  had  with  him  many  Indians,  and  these  were  com 
manded  by  Joseph  Brant,  a  famous  chief,  who  had  had 
much  to  do  with  white  men  and  who  was  well  educated. 
This  third  army  was  to  go  east,  over  the  Oneida  Carry 
ing  Place  and  down  the  Mohawk  to  Albany.  By  this 
pretty  plan  three  armies,  one  from  the  south  under 
Howe,  one  from  the  north  under  Burgoyne,  and  one 


34  FROM   TRAIL  TO    RAILWAY 

from  the  west  under  St.  Leger,  were  to  meet  in  Albany. 
They  would  put  British  soldiers  in  every  fort  on  the 
way,  capture  and  disarm  the  rebels,  and  have  all  New 
York  under  their  feet.  More  than  this,  they  would  thus 
shut  off  New  England  from  Pennsylvania  and  Virginia, 
cutting  the  unruly  colonies  into  two  parts  so  that  they 
could  not  help  each  other. 

But  the  scheme,  brilliant  as  it  was,  would  not  work. 
None  of  the  British  armies  reached  Albany.  Howe  did 
not,  perhaps  because  he  did  not  try.  Burgoyne  and 
St.  Leger  did  not,  because  they  could  not  :  there  was 
altogether  too  much  in  the  way.  We  shall  now  see  how 
this  happened. 

St.  Leger  brought  into  the  Mohawk  valley  from  Os- 
wego  an  army  of  seventeen  hundred  men.  Some  were 
British,  some  were  Hessians  or  hired  German  soldiers, 
and  the  rest  were  Indians  under  Joseph  Brant.  They 
thought  that  it  would  not  be  much  trouble  to  take  Fort 
Stanwix  and  then  go  down  the  valley,  burning  and 
killing  as  they  went,  until  they  should  meet  the  other 
armies  of  the  king  at  Albany.  But  the  colonists  sent 
more  soldiers  to  defend  the  fort,  and  Colonel  Peter 
Gansevoort,  who  was  in  command,  had  under  him  nearly 
a  thousand  men.  Just  before  the  British  came  in  sight 
a  stock  of  provisions,  brought  on  several  boats  up  the 
river,  had  been  safely  delivered  within  the  defenses. 
This  was  early  in  August,  and  only  about  seven  weeks 
before  Congress  had  adopted  the  style  of  American  flag 
which  we  know  so  well.  There  was  no  flag  at  Fort 
Stanwix,  so  the  garrison  set  about  making  one.  They 
cut  up  shirts  to  make  the  white.  The  blue  came  from  a 


ORISKANY,  A  BATTLE  OF  THE  REVOLUTION      35 

cloak  captured  not  long  before  in  a  battle,  on  the  Hud 
son,  by  Colonel  Marinus  Willett,  one  of  the  bravest 
commanders  within  the  fort.  The  red  is  said  to  have 
been  taken  from  a  petticoat.  Certain  it  is  that  a  patriot 
flag  was  made,  and  some  think  that  it  was  the  first 
American  flag  ever  raised  over  a  fortification. 

While  the  British  were  besieging  Fort  Stanwix,  Gen 
eral  Herkimer  had  called  out  the  men  of  the  valley, 
bidding  all  between  the  ages  of  sixteen  and  sixty  make 
ready  for  battle.  The  boys  and  old  men  were  to  do 
their  best  to  care  for  the  families  and  to  defend  their 
homes.  Eight  hundred  men  gathered  under  Herkimer 
and  marched  to  help  the  garrison  of  the  fort.  Hearing 
of  this,  part  of  the  British  army,  including  the  Indians, 
came  down  the  valley  to  head  off  Herkimer.  They  met 
at  Oriskany.  The  farmer  soldiers  were  hurrying  up  the 
valley  without  due  watching  for  sudden  attack,  while  the 
enemy  placed  themselves  in  ambush  around  a  low  field 
which  was  wooded  and  swampy.  Through  this  field  the 
road  ran,  and  when  Herkimer's  men  were  well  down 
into  it  the  Indians  opened  a  hot  fire,  which  threw  the 
patriots  into  disorder.  They  soon  rallied  and  fought 
fiercely  for  five  hours,  until  two  hundred  of  them  had 
lost  their  lives.  Early  in  the  battle  Herkimer  was  shot, 
but  he  forgot  his  pain  when  he  saw  his  men  victorious. 
Much  of  the  fighting  was  of  the  Indian  sort,  from  behind 
trees,  for  the  Dutchmen  well  knew  the  ways  of  the 
savages.  They  saw  that  when  one  man  fired  from  be 
hind  a  tree  an  Indian  would  rush  forward  to  tomahawk 
him  before  he  could  load  his  gun  for  another  shot.  So 
they  were  ordered  to  stand  by  twos  and  take  turns  in 


36  FROM   TRAIL   TO   RAILWAY 

firing.  Thus  when  the  Indian  ran  forward  with  his  toma 
hawk  he  would  receive  a  bullet  from  the  other  man's  gun. 
Under  John  Johnson,  the  son  of  Sir  William  Johnson, 
were  many  Tories  from  the  valley.  They  and  the  pa 
triots  often  recognized  each  other  as  former  neighbors, 
and  then  the  fight  was  more  stubborn  than  ever,  for 
the  soldiers  of  freedom  were  bitterly  angry  to  find  old 


FIG.  12.   NICHOLAS  HERKIMER'S  MONUMENT 

To  the  right  is  the  old  mansion  in  which  he  lived.    Near  Little  Falls, 
New  York 

friends  in  arms  against  them.  During  the  battle  a 
terrific  thunder-shower  came  up,  and  both  sides  stopped 
fighting,  having  enough  to  do  to  keep  their  powder  and 
guns  dry.  The  dark  storm  passed  and  the  strife  went 
on  again.  At  length  the  Indians  grew  tired  and  ran, 
leaving  the  field  to  Herkimer  and  his  little  army.  The 
importance  of  a  conflict  is  not  always  in  proportion  to 
the  size  of  the  armies  engaged,  and  in  what  it  did  for 


ORISKANY,  A  BATTLE  OF  THE  REVOLUTION     37 

freedom  Oriskany  takes  high  place  among  the  battles 
of  modern  times. 

The  enemy  went  back  to  the  siege  of  Fort  Stanwix, 
and  soon  a  new  force  of  patriots  under  Benedict  Arnold 
was  sent  up  the  valley  to  relieve  the  fort.  It  was  dur 
ing  this  march  that  an  ignorant  but  cunning  fellow 
named  Han  Yost  Schuyler  was  caught,  tried,  and  con 
demned  to  die  as  a  spy.  Because  his  friends  pleaded  for 
his  life  Arnold  finally  told  him  that  he  might  live  if  he 
would  go  up  to  Fort  Stanwix  and  make  the  Indians  and 
British  believe  that  a  great  army  was  marching  against 
them.  Meanwhile  the  man's  brother  was  held  as  a  hos 
tage,  to  be  punished  if  the  promise  was  not  fulfilled. 
Han  Yost  did  his  part  so  well  that  St.  Leger,  taking 
fright,  left  the  fort  in  great  haste  and  his  expedition 
was  entirely  broken  up.  Why  he  did  not  have  a  gay 
march  down  to  Albany  is  now  quite  plain. 

A  few  days  after  the  battle  of  Oriskany  a  number  of 
men  drove  some  cattle  to  Fort  Stanwix  as  food  for  the 
soldiers.  Several  women  went  with  them  on  horseback 
to  visit  their  husbands,  who  belonged  to  the  garrison. 
At  the  ford  of  the  river,  now  the  Genesee  street  crossing 
in  Utica,  a  big  Dutchman,  who  did  not  wish  to  get  wet, 
leaped  uninvited  upon  a  horse  behind  one  of  the  women. 
The  horse  did  not  like  the  double  load,  and  made  great 
sport  by  throwing  the  Dutchman  into  the  middle  of  the 
stream,  while  he  carried  his  mistress  over  in  safety. 

General  Burgoyne  came  nearer  Albany  than  did 
St.  Leger.  Indeed  he  went  to  Albany,  but  not  until  he 
had  lost  his  army.  He  had  promptly  captured  Ticon- 
deroga  on  lake  Champlain,  and  this  success  gave  him 


38  FROM   TRAIL  TO    RAILWAY 

high  hopes  and  sent  rejoicing  throughout  Great  Britain  ; 
but  the  patriots,  by  felling  trees  and  cutting  away 
bridges,  hindered  his  southward  march  in  every  way. 
He  sent  a  thousand  of  his  German  soldiers  across  to 
Bennington,  among  the  Green  mountains,  to  capture 
stores  which  he  knew  were  there.  But  General  Stark 
was  there  also,  with  a  little  army  from  New  Hampshire 
and  Massachusetts,  and  the  thousand  Hessians  did  not 
go  back  to  help  Burgoyne.  He  had  left  another  thou 
sand  to  guard  Ticonderoga,  and  so  he  was  two  thousand 
short.  All  this  time  the  patriot  army  was  growing,  for 
the  men  of  the  Hudson  valley  were  maddened  when 
they  saw  the  bloodthirsty  Indians  marching  with  the 
English,  and,  to  Burgoyne's  surprise,  they  had  no  mind 
to  fight  for  the  king.  Howe  did  not  come,  St.  Leger 
did  not  come,  and  the  provisions  were  getting  short. 
These  could  only  come  along  the  road  from  the  north, 
and  the  colonists  were  already  marching  in  behind  Bur 
goyne's  army  to  cut  his  line  of  communications.  He 
knew  that  he  must  fight  or  starve.  He  chose  to  fight. 
The  battle  was  fought  on  Bemis  Heights,  a  range  of 
hills  west  of  the  Hudson,  a  short  distance  north  of  the 
little  village  of  Stillwater.  The  British  general,  after 
his  defeat,  withdrew  a  few  miles  northward  and  surren 
dered  his  army  near  the  present  town  of  Schuylerville. 
A  tall  monument  marks  the  place.  This  was  the  battle 
of  Saratoga,  fought  in  old  Saratoga,  which  is  several 
miles  from  the  famous  resort  of  that  name. 

So  it  was  that  up  and  down  these  beautiful  valleys 
went  armies  and  scouting  bands,  as  well  as  peaceful 
emigrants  with  their  oxen,  their  stages,  and  their  small 


ORISKANY,  A  BATTLE  OF  THE  REVOLUTION     39 

freight  boats.  One  cannot  go  far  along  the  Hudson  or 
the  Mohawk  without  rinding  the  site  of  an  Indian  vil 
lage,  the  foundations  of  an  old  fort,  the  homestead  of 
a  Revolutionary  hero,  or  an  ancient  place  of  worship. 
When  we  see  the  great  railways  and  swift  trains,  the 
bundles  of  telegraph  wires,  the  noisy  cities  and  great 
mills  of  to-day,  we  can  remember  Philip  Schuyler,  Sir 
William  Johnson,  Marinus  Willett,  Peter  Gansevoort, 
and  Nicholas  Herkimer.  There  were  no  nobler  patriots, 
even  in  Virginia  and  Massachusetts,  than  these  men  of 
the  Mohawk  valley. 


CHAPTER  IV 

THE   ERIE  CANAL 

If  we  think  that  the  men  of  a  hundred  years  ago 
were  people  with  few  wants,  who  were  willing  to  let 
others  do  the  trading  and  make  the  fortunes,  we  are 
quite  in  the  wrong.  They  were  as  eager  in  business  as 
are  the  driving  Americans  of  to-day.  So  long  ago  as 
1683  Thomas  Dongan,  a  well-born  Irishman,  came  to 
New  York  to  be  its  governor.  In  his  letters  to  the  gov 
ernment  in  London  he  said  a  great  deal  about  the  fur 
trade  and  the  danger  of  its  going  to  other  cities.  Once 
he  reported  that  two  hundred  packs  of  beaver  skins  had 
gone  down  the  Susquehanna  river  and  across  to  Phila 
delphia  instead  of  being  brought  by  the  Mohawk  to 
New  York,  and  he  thought  that  if  this  traffic  continued 
New  York  would  be  ruined. 

As  time  went  on  the  rivalry  grew  stronger  and 
stronger.  All  the  cities  on  the  coast  were  bidding  for 
the  western  trade.  The  "  West  "  was  then  the  Genesee 
country,  the  plains  along  the  Lakes,  and  the  rich  lands 
of  the  Ohio  valley.  Some  of  the  trade  from  the  Lakes 
and  the  Genesee  went  down  the  St.  Lawrence.  Heavy 
articles  especially  were  sent  to  Quebec,  while  lighter 
freight  was  taken  overland  down  the  Mohawk.  When 
De  Witt  Clinton  was  stirring  up  the  legislature  and  the 

40 


THE    ERIE   CANAL  41 

people  of  New  York,  he  told  them  he  was  very  sorry  to 
learn  that  merchandise  from  Montreal  was  sold  in  the 
state  for  less  than  New  York  prices.  This  was  because 
there  was  transportation  by  water  from  Montreal,  and 
the  St.  Lawrence  merchants  could  afford  to  undersell 
those  of  New  York. 

Many  people  thought  that  the  wheat  and  flour  and 
other  products  of  western  New  York  would  all  go  down 
the  Susquehanna  to  Baltimore  and  Philadelphia.  Rough 
boats  known  as  "  arks  "  were  built  and  floated  down  the 
river  in  the  high  water  caused  by  the  melting  of  the 
snows  in  the  Allegheny  highlands.  From  two  to  five 
hundred  barrels  of  flour  were  carried  in  one  of  these 
craft.  As  the  boats  could  not  be  sailed  up  the  river, 
they  were  taken  to  pieces  at  the  end  of  the  voyage  and 
sold  for  lumber.  We  have  already  seen  that  Colonel 
Rochester  followed  this  valley  in  migrating  to  the  Gen- 
esee  river,  and  one  writer  calls  attention  to  the  fact 
that  in  seven  days  several  elderly  people  had  come 
quite  comfortably  by  this  route  from  Baltimore  to  Bath 
in  the  southwestern  part  of  New  York.  One  could  now 
travel  from  San  Francisco  to  New  York  and  almost 
halfway  across  the  Atlantic  ocean  in  that  time. 

Other  cities  also  hoped  to  secure  some  of  the  profits 
of  dealing  with  the  rapidly  growing  West.  The  tourist 
on  his  way  down  the  Potomac  to  Mount  Vernon,  the 
home  of  Washington,  will  pass  by  Alexandria,  a  quiet 
old  town  of  about  fifteen  thousand  people.  Washington 
himself  thought  it  possible  that  Alexandria  might  get  a 
good  share  of  the  trade  from  Detroit  and  other  places 
on  the  Lakes  and  on  the  Ohio  river.  All  this  seems 


42  FROM    TRAIL   TO    RAILWAY 

strange  to  us,  because  since  the  days  of  our  great-grand 
fathers  the  traffic  has  been  going  largely  to  New  York. 
The  cause  of  the  change  was  the  Erie  canal.  Yet  in 
1 8 1 8,  a  few  months  after  the  canal  was  begun,  an  Albany 
newspaper  discussed  very  earnestly,  as  one  of  the  chief 
questions  of  the  day,  the  danger  that  Philadelphia  would 
take  away  the  western  trade. 

Flour,  salt,  and  potash  had  been  taken  to  New  York 
in  large  quantities,  but  all  these  products  were  carried 
as  far  as  Schenectady  in  little  ten-ton  boats,  by  way  of 
Wood  creek  and  the  Mohawk.  As  the  business  grew  it 
was  seen  to  be  impossible  always  to  drag  the  boats  up 
Wood  creek  with  horses,  and  that  the  small  canal,  ten  feet 
wide,  which  had  been  cut  around  the  rapids  at  Little 
Falls,  could  not  serve  the  purposes  of  another  generation. 

Hence  for  many  years  there  had  been  talk  of  a  canal 
to  join  the  Lakes  and  the  Hudson,  thus  making  naviga 
tion  without  a  break  from  the  interior  of  the  country  to 
the  Atlantic  ocean  at  New  York.  The  credit  for  first 
thinking  of  such  a  canal  has  been  claimed  for  several 
men,  but  probably  it  was  "  in  the  air,"  and  many  thought 
of  it  at  about  the  same  time. 

Gouverneur  Morris,  one  of  the  famous  New  York 
statesmen  of  the  day,  proposed  that  lake  Erie  should 
be  "  tapped  "  and  its  waters  led  to  the  Hudson.  The  sur 
face  of  this  lake  is  five  hundred  and  seventy-three  feet 
above  tide  water  at  Albany.  It  was  Morris's  idea  to  dig 
a  channel,  with  a  gently  sloping  bottom,  which  should 
send  the  water  east  in  a  stream  deep  enough  to  float 
a  boat.  The  water  thus  turned  from  its  course  would 
go  to  Albany  instead  of  flowing  through  the  Niagara 


THE   ERIE   CANAL  43 

and  the  St.  Lawrence.  There  were,  however,  difficulties 
about  the  plan  which  Morris  did  not  understand,  and  it 
was  never  carried  out. 

The  great  water  way  is  often  known  as   "  Clinton's 
Ditch."    This  name  was  doubtless  given  in  ridicule  by 


FIG.  13.   DE  WITT  CLINTON 

those  who  did  not  think  it  could  be  built.  There  were 
many  who  laughed  at  the  surveyors  when  they  saw  them 
looking  about,  using  their  levels,  and  driving  their  stakes 


44  FROM   TRAIL  TO    RAILWAY 

in  the  woods  and  swamps.  It  was  even  said  that  to  dig 
such  a  canal  was  impossible,  that  it  would  cost  too  much 
money,  that  it  would  take  too  much  time,  and  that  the 
canal  itself  could  never  be  made  to  hold  water. 

But  Clinton  and  his  supporters  believed  in  it,  and 
worked  hard  to  make  it  a  success.  They  said  that  the 
cost  of  carrying  a  ton  of  produce  in  wagons  a  distance 
of  one  hundred  miles  was  about  thirty-two  dollars.  The 
experience  of  others  had  proved  that  in  canals  a  ton 
could  be  carried  one  mile  for  one  cent,  or  a  hundred 
miles  for  one  dollar.  There  is  a  great  difference  between 
one  dollar  and  thirty-two  dollars,  especially  if  the  differ 
ence  is  added  to  the  cost  of  the  wheat  from  which  our 
bread  is  made,  or  of  the  lumber  used  in  building  our 
houses.  Clinton  himself  thought  that  it  might  take  ten 
or  fifteen  years  to  make  the  canal,  but,  as  we  shall  see, 
it  was  finished  in  less  ti.ne  than  he  supposed. 

Clinton  declared  very  truly  that  New  York  was  espe 
cially  fortunate,  for  the  surface  made  it  an  easy  task  to 
dig  the  ditch.  There  was  no  high  or  rough  ground  to  be 
crossed,  there  was  plenty  of  water  to  keep  the  canal  full, 
and  it  would  run  through  a  fertile  and  rich  country.  As 
Clinton  was  governor  of  New  York  during  much  of  the 
period  in  which  the  canal  was  made,  his  name  is  im- 
perishably  connected  with  the  great  enterprise.  He  was 
once  candidate  for  the  office  of  President  of  the  United 
States,  but  perhaps  even  that  office,  if  he  had  been 
elected,  would  not  have  given  him  so  much  honor  as  did 
the  building  of  this  great  public  work. 

Canals  were  not  new  in  Clinton's  time.  Long  before 
the  Christian  era  began  men  had  dug  them  to  carry 


THE    ERIE   CANAL  45 

water  for  various  uses,  such  as  irrigation  and  turning 
machinery.  Often,  as  for  hundreds  of  years  in  the  fen 
country  of  England,  canals  have  been  used  to  drain  wet 
or  flooded  lands  and  for  moving  boats.  Even  beavers 
have  been  known  to  dig  ditches,  which  fill  with  water, 
that  they  may  float  the  wood  which  they  cut  to  the  place 
where  they  build  their  dams  and  their  homes. 

If  a  region  is  perfectly  level,  only  a  ditch  and  water  are 
needed.  But  lands  are  not  often  level  for  more  than  short 
distances  ;  hence  a  canal  consists  commonly  of  a  series 
of  levels  at  different  heights.  Of  course  the  boats  must 
be  passed  from  one  level  to  another  by  some  means.  If 
they  are  small,  they  can  be  dragged  up  or  down  between 
two  levels ;  but  this  method  will  not  serve  for  large 
boats  carrying  many  tons  of  coal,  lumber,  salt,  or  bricks, 
hence  locks  are  generally  used.  A  lock  is  a  short  sec 
tion  of  a  canal,  long  enough  for  the  boats  used,  and  hav 
ing  walls  rising  from  the  bottom  of  the  lower  level  to 
the  top  of  the  upper  one.  There  are  big  gates  at  each 
end.  If  a  boat  is  to  ascend,  it  runs  into  the  lock  on  the 
lower  level  and  the  lower  gates  are  closed.  A  small  gate 
in  the  large  upper  gate  is  then  opened  and  the  water 
runs  in  from  above,  slowly  raising  the  water  in  the  lock 
and  with  it  the  boat.  When  the  water  in  the  lock  is 
even  with  the  water  in  the  upper  level,  the  big  upper 
gates  are  swung  open  and  the  boat  goes  on  its  way.  In 
a  similar  manner  boats  go  down  from  higher  to  lower 
sections  of  the  canal.  Locks  have  been  used  in  Italy  and 
in  Holland  for  more  than  four  hundred  years. 

On  April  15,  1817,  the  legislature  passed  the  law  for 
the  construction  of  the  long  ditch,  and  the  first  spade 


46 


FROM    TRAIL   TO    RAILWAY 


was  set  into  the  earth  by  Judge  John  Richardson  at 
Rome,  New  York,  on  July  4  of  the  same  year.  This 
was  forty-one  years  after  the  Declaration  of  Independ 
ence,  and  it  is  plain  that  the  country  had  grown  much 
in  wealth  and  numbers  when  a  single  state  could  start 
out  to  build  a  water  way  three  hundred  miles  long. 


FIG.  14.  ERIE  CANAL,  LOOKING  EAST  FROM  GENESEE  STREET 
BRIDGE,  UTICA 

After  the  first  spadeful  of  soil  had  been  lifted,  the  citi 
zens  and  the  laborers  eagerly  seized  the  shovels,  and 
thus  everybody  had  a  small  share  in  beginning  the  great 
work.  Guns  were  fired  and  there  was  much  rejoicing. 

The  men  who  took  the  contracts  for  digging  short 
sections  of  the  canal  were  mainly  farmers  who  had  gained 
good  properties  and  who  were  living  along  the  line.  In 
those  days,  if  any  one  had  visited  the  men  at  work,  he 


THE   ERIE   CANAL  47 

would  not  have  seen  crowds  of  foreign  laborers  living 
in  huts,  but  men  born  and  reared  in  the  country  round 
about.  It  was  little  more  than  twenty  years  since  the 
Genesee  road  had  been  built  through  central  New 
York,  and  there  was  still  much  forest.  The  trees  grew 
rank  and  strong,  and  it  was  no  light  task  to  cut  through 
the  tangled  network  of  roots  that  lay  below  the  surface. 
First  the  trees  were  cut  down,  making  a  lane  sixty  feet 
wide,  and  in  this  the  canal  was  dug  to  a  width  of  forty  feet. 
Powerful  machines  that  could  draw  out  stumps  and  pull 
over  the  largest  trees  were  brought  from  Europe.  The 
wheels  of  the  stump  machine  were  sixteen  feet  across. 
A  plow  with  a  sharp  blade  was  also  made,  to  cut  down 
through  the  heavy  carpet  of  fibers  and  small  roots. 

Swiftly  one  piece  after  another  of  the  canal  was  fin 
ished  and  the  water  let  in.  The  trench  was  found  to  hold 
water,  and  boats  were  soon  busy  hauling  produce  from 
town  to  town.  In  1825  it  was  finished  from  Black  Rock, 
or  Buffalo,  to  Waterford,  above  Troy.  The  work  had  taken 
eight  years  and  had  cost  a  little  less  than  eight  million 
dollars.  De  Witt  Clinton  was  right  and  the  croakers 
were  wrong.  Perhaps  it  was  hard  at  that  time  to  find  any 
one  who  did  not  think  that  he  had  always  wanted  a  canal. 

There  were,  it  is  true,  a  few  disappointed  ones  at 
Schenectady.  There  the  wagons  from  Albany  had 
always  stopped,  and  there  the  boating  up  the  Mohawk 
had  begun.  As  all  the  loads  had  to  be  shifted  between 
the  river  and  the  land  journeys,  there  had  been  work  for 
many  men.  Thus  the  place  had  grown  up,  and  now  that 
boats  were  to  run  through  without  change,  some  people 
naturally  thought  that  the  town  would  die  out,  or  would 


48  FROM    TRAIL   TO    RAILWAY 

at  least  lose  much  of  its  business.  These  few  discon 
tented  folk,  however,  were  hardly  to  be  counted,  among 
the  thousands  who  exulted  over  the  completed  canal. 

A  great  celebration  was  arranged,  and  the  rejoicings 
of  the  beginning  were  redoubled  in  the  festivities  at 
the  end.  Boats  were  made  ready  at  Buffalo  to  take 
Governor  Clinton  and  the  other  guests  to  New  York. 


FIG.  15.  ALONG  THE  CANAL  IN  SYRACUSE 
Copyrighted,  1899,  by  A.  P.  Yates,  Syracuse,  N.Y. 

When  the  first  boat  entered  the  canal  from  lake  Erie 
a  cannon  was  fired.  Cannon  had  been  set  within  hearing 
distance  all  the  way  to  the  sea  along  the  line  of  the 
canal.  This  way  of  sending  news  was  the  nearest  ap 
proach  to  the  telegraph  at  that  time.  Soon  the  tidings 
of  the  great  event  came  booming  down  among  the 
cliffs  of  the  Hudson  and  reached  New  York.1 

1  The  time  allowed  for  the  signaling  from  Buffalo  to  Sandy  Hook 
was  one  hour  and  twenty  minutes.  This  programme  was  substantially 
carried  out.  From  Albany  to  Sandy  Hook  only  twenty  minutes  were 
required. 


THE    ERIE   CANAL  49 

Two  kegs  of  lake  Erie  water  were  put  on  one  of  the 
boats  at  Buffalo,  and  we  shall  see  what  was  done  with 
them.  There  were  also  two  barrels  of  fine  apples  which 
had  been  raised  in  an  orchard  at  Niagara  Falls.  These 
were  not  to  be  eaten  on  the  way,  one  barrel  being  for 
the  Town  Council  of  Troy,  and  the  other  for  the  city 
fathers  of  New  York.  Many  people  on  both  sides  of 
the  ocean  are  still  eating  fine  apples  from  the  trees 
of  the  Genesee  country. 

One  boat  in  the  little  fleet  was  called  Noah 's  Ark, 
and  on  board  were  two  eagles,  a  bear,  some  fawns, 
fishes,  and  birds,  besides  two  Indian  boys.  These  were 
sent  to  New  York  as  "  products  of  the  West."  At  every 
town  there  was  a  celebration,  and  great  was  the  excite 
ment  in  such  cities  as  Rochester,  Syracuse,  Utica,  and 
Albany.  There  were  salutes  and  feasts  and  speeches 
and  prayers,  and  the  gratitude  and  joy  of  the  people 
fairly  ran  over.  The  greatest  celebration  of  all  was  in 
New  York,  where  everybody  turned  out  to  do  honor  to 
the  occasion.  The  fine  ladies  boarded  a  special  boat, 
and  the  "aquatic  procession"  went  down  through  the 
bay  to  Sandy  Hook.  It  was  arranged  that  a  messenger 
of  Neptune,  the  sea  god,  should  meet  the  fleet,  inquire 
their  errand,  and  lead  them  to  his  master's  realm.  Here 
Governor  Clinton  turned  out  the  lake  Erie  water  from 
the  two  kegs  into  the  sea  as  a  symbol  of  the  joining  of 
the  lakes  and  the  ocean.  Then  all  the  people  went  back 
to  the  city  and  had  speeches  and  parades,  feasts  and 
fireworks,  while  the  city-hall  bell  was  rung  for  several 
hours.  The  illumination  was  said  to  be  a  fine  one,  but 
perhaps  their  lamps  and  candles  would  now  look  dim. 


50  FROM   TRAIL  TO   RAILWAY 

After  the  canal  was  finished  the  carrying  business  was 
quite  made  over.  Little  was  heard  then  about  sending 
western  New  York  fruit  and  grain  to  Philadelphia  or 
Montreal  or  Alexandria.  Freighting  was  so  cheap  that 
a  man  who  had  been  selling  his  wheat  for  thirty  cents 
a  bushel  now  received  a  dollar  for  it.  In  the  war  with 
England,  only  a  few  years  before,  it  had  cost  more  to 
carry  a  cannon  from  Albany  to  Oswego  than  it  had  cost 
to  make  it.  The  journey  had  now  become  an  easy  and 


FIG.  16.   TRAVELING  BY  PACKET  ON  THE  ERIE  CANAL 

simple  matter.  Two  farmers  built  a  boat  of  their  own, 
loaded  it  with  the  produce  of  their  farms,  and  took  it 
down  Seneca  lake  and  all  the  way  to  New  York.  They 
were  let  out  of  the  woods  into  the  wide  world. 

The  canal  was  not  entirely  given  up  to  the  carry 
ing  of  freight.  People  thought  that  it  was  a  fine  ex 
perience  to  travel  in  the  passenger  boats,  which  were 
called  "  packets."  These  were  considered  as  remarkable 
as  are  the  limited  express  trains  of  to-day.  The  speed 
allowed  by  law  was  five  miles  an  hour.  To  go  faster 


THE   ERIE    CANAL  51 

would  drive  the  water  against  the  banks  and  injure 
them.  The  fare  was  five  cents  a  mile  including  berth 
and  table.  It  was  said  that  a  man  could  travel  from 
New  York  to  Buffalo  with  4k  the  utmost  comfort  "  and 
without  fatigue.  The  journey  cost  eighteen  dollars,  and 
only  took  six  days !  We,  of  course,  cannot  help  think 
ing  of  the  Empire  State  Express,  which  leaves  New 
York  at  8.30  A.M.  and  arrives  in  Buffalo  at  4.50  P.M. 


FIG.  17.  ERIE  CANAL  AND  SOLVAY  WORKS,  SYRACUSE 

If  the  journey  of  those  days  seems  long  to  us,  we 
must  remember  that  to  most  of  the  travelers  the  scen 
ery  was  fresh  and  interesting,  for  it  was  a  visit  to  a 
new  land.  The  rocky  highlands,  the  blue  Catskills,  the 
winding  Mohawk,  and  the  towns  and  farms  of  the 
interior  were  perhaps  as  full  of  interest  as  the  morning 
paper  is  on  the  trains  of  to-day.  From  Utica  to  Syra 
cuse,  more  than  fifty  miles,  is  one  great  level ;  but  on 
nearing  Rochester  the  canal  follows  an  embankment 
across  a  valley,  and  the  passengers  in  those  days  looked 


52  FROM    TRAIL   TO    RAILWAY 

wonderingly  down  on  the  tops  of  trees.  At  Lockport 
they  heard  the  clatter  as  they  slowly  rose  by  a  long  row 
of  locks  to  the  top  of  the  cliffs,  and  at  Buffalo  they 
looked  out  on  a  sea  of  fresh  water.  At  Utica,  Rome, 
Rochester,  and  other  places,  after  a  few  years,  side 
canals  came  in  from  north  and  south,  from  Binghamton 
and  from  the  upper  valley  of  the  Genesee  ;  and  up  in 
the  hills  great  reservoirs  were  built,  with  shallow  canals 
known  as  "  feeders  "  leading  down  to  the  main  trench. 
These  were  built  to  make  sure  that  there  should  be 
water  enough  for  dry  seasons  ;  for  locks  will  leak,  and 
whenever  a  boat  locks  down  a  lockful  of  water  goes  on 
toward  the  sea. 

Now  all  was  stir  and  growth.  Buffalo  had  started 
on  its  way  to  become  a  great  city.  Rochester  ground 
more  wheat  and  Syracuse  made  more  salt.  There  was 
no  doubt  that  New  York  would  soon  be  known  as  the 
metropolis  of  the  western  world,  and  "  Clinton's  Ditch  " 
became  the  most  famous  of  American  canals. 


CHAPTER  V 

THE  NEW  YORK  CENTRAL  RAILWAY 

The  Erie  canal  had  not  long  been  finished  when  a 
new  way  of  carrying  men  and  merchandise  came  into 
use  in  New  York.  In  the  next  year  after  the  great 
celebration  the  legislature  granted  a  charter  to  build  a 
railroad  from  Albany  to  Schenectady.  It  is  sometimes! 
said  that  this  was  the  first  time  in  America  that  cars 
were  drawn  by  means  of  steam.  This  is  not  true,  but 
New  York  was  not  far  behind  some  other  states,  and 
the  De  Witt  Clinton  train,  of  which  a  picture  is  shown 
in  this  chapter,  looks  as  if  it  must  have  been  one  of  the 
very  earliest  ones.  This  train  made  its  trial  trip  in  1831, 
which  was  seventeen  years  after  George  Stephenson 
had  built  his  first  locomotive  in  England. 

A  railroad  had  been  opened  from  Baltimore,  a  few 
miles  to  the  west,  the  year  before,  and  about  the  same 
time  another  was  built  in  South  Carolina.  Two  years 
earlier,  in  1829,  the  Delaware  and  Hudson  Canal  Com 
pany  brought  from  England  three  locomotives,  one  of 
them  built  by  Stephenson,  to  draw  coal  to  their  canal 
from  their  mines  at  Honesdale,  Pennsylvania.  In  1826 
a  railroad  four  miles  long  was  built  at  Quincy,  Massa 
chusetts,  to  carry  granite  from  the  quarries  to  the  sea. 
It  was  called  a  tramway,  and  horses  were  used  instead 

53 


54  FROM   TRAIL   TO    RAILWAY 

of  steam.  If  we  go  to  England,  we  shall  find  that 
tramways  have  been  used  there  for  more  than  a  him 
dred  years.  Thus  it  is  not  easy  to  say  when  the  first 
railroad  was  built,  and  all  writers  do  not  tell  the  same 
story  about  it,  but  it  is  certain  that  steam  cars  were 
first  used  and  long  roads  with  iron  tracks  were  first 
built  a  little  less  than  a  hundred  years  ago. 

If  we  study  the  De  Witt  Clinton  train,  we  shall  learn 
several  things.    Both  the  engine  and  the  coaches  were 


FIG.  18.  THE  DE  WITT  CLINTON  TRAIN 

small  and  light  compared  with  those  used  now.  With 
the  great  speed  of  to-day,  all  the  parts  of  a  train  must 
be  very  heavy  in  order  to  cling  to  the  track.  The  engine 
of  those  days  had  four  light  driving  wheels,  and  the  engi 
neer,  it  would  seem,  had  to  operate  his  engine  while 
facing  wind  and  storm.  The  cab  looks  very  much  like  a 
common  express  wagon  made  heavier  than  usual ;  and  if 
we  look  at  the  passenger  wagons,  we  shall  see  why  passen 
ger  cars  are  called  coaches.  The  first  ones  were  coaches. 


THE    NEW  YORK   CENTRAL   RAILWAY  55 

and  every  picture  of  an  old  passenger  train  shows  that 
the  cars  were  modeled  after  the  coaches  of  the  stage 
lines  of  that  age,  except  that  the  wheels  were  made 
with  flat  rims,  with  flanges  to  keep  them  on  the  track. 
The  passengers  certainly  could  not  move  about,  and  the 
high  perches  on  the  top  look  somewhat  dangerous.  One 
would  think  that  the  wind  and  the  smoke  of  the  locomo 
tive  could  not  have  been  pleasant.  The  men  could  not 
go  into  a  smoking  car,  and  if  they  had  luncheon  they 
must  have  brought  it  in  their  pockets.  Nor  could  they 
tuck  themselves  snugly  into  a  berth  and  sleep  all  night. 
These  things,  however,  were  not  needed  upon  a  railroad 
that  was  only  eighteen  miles  long.  To  this  day  dining 
cars  and  "  sleepers"  are  not  so  much  used  in  England 
as  in  this  country.  Millions  of  people  travel  there,  but 
the  land  is  small,  they  go  swiftly,  and  can  usually  eat 
and  sleep  at  their  journey's  end.  They  still  speak  of  the 
"wagons  "  of  the  " goods  train,"  and  English  freight  cars 
look  almost  like  toys  by  the  side  of  ours  in  America. 
This  shows  us  how  closely  the  railways  and  cars  are 
related  to  common  roads  and  vehicles. 

People  laughed  at  railroads  in  these  early  days  and 
had  about  as  much  faith  in  them  as  we  now  have  in 
flying  machines.  A  few  years  ago  men  would  have  had 
the  same  sport  about  wireless  telegraphy,  or  about  talk 
ing  between  New  York  and  Chicago  with  a  telephone. 
Mrs.  Alice  Morse  Earle,  who  has  written  much  about 
early  life  in  New  England,  says  that  the  farmers  did  not 
like  railroads,  for  they  thought  that  horses  would  soon 
be  useless  and  would  then  be  killed,  and  that  there  would 
be  no  demand  for  oats  or  hay.  They  were  afraid,  too, 


56  FROM    TRAIL   TO    RAILWAY 

that  the  noise  would  frighten  the  hens  so  that  they 
would  not  lay,  that  the  sparks  from  the  engine  would 
burn  up  everything,  and  that  the  people  would  go  crazy. 

There  was  some  excuse  for  not  enjoying  railway 
travel,  for  the  roadbeds  were  often  made  of  solid  rock, 
and  the  cars  did  not  always  have  springs.  The  tracks 
were  made  of  strap  iron  spiked  down  to  wooden  string 
ers.  These  iron  straps  would  sometimes  become  loose, 
and  had  an  unpleasant  way  of  curling  up  and  piercing 
the  floor  of  the  coach  where  people  were  sitting. 

In  these  days  it  is  more  comfortable  and  probably 
safer  to  ride  in  a  railway  train  than  behind  a  horse.  The 
Empire  State  Express  runs  from  New  York  to  Buffalo 
in  eight  hours  and  twenty  minutes.  It  makes  but  four 
stops  on  the  way  and  covers  more  than  fifty-three  miles 
an  hour.  When  we  compare  this  with  the  packet-boat 
time-table  of  seventy-five  years  ago  we  see  how  much 
time  is  now  saved. 

To-day  a  man  can  board  the  Twentieth  Century 
Limited  in  New  York  City  at  2.45  in  the  afternoon  and 
be  set  down  in  Chicago  the  next  morning.  He  can  do 
business  nearly  all  of  one  day  by  the  sea,  and  nearly  all 
of  the  next  day  on  the  shore  of  lake  Michigan.  On 
the  way  he  will  find  easy  chairs,  books  and  papers,  a 
good  bed,  a  fine  table,  a  place  to  write,  to  be  shaved,  or 
to  take  a  bath,  and  he  may  even  read  from  time  to  time 
the  prices  of  stocks  as  they  are  sent  over  the  wire  from 
New  York  and  Chicago.  But  our  comfortable  traveler 
should  not  despise  the  early  days.  Perhaps  he  misses 
some  of  the  good  times  that  the  great-grandfathers  had 
in  the  Mohawk  boats  and  along  the  Genesee  road. 


THE    NEW   YORK    CENTRAL    RAILWAY 


57 


To  go  so  fast  and  so  far  means  that  much  has  been 
done  since  the  first  small  train  came  across  the  sand 
fields  to  Schenectady.  Five  years  later  the  trains  ran 
up  to  Utica.  This  was  two  hundred  and  two  years  after 
Arent  Van  Curler's  journey  along  the  same  river.  In  two 
years  more  a  little  road,  twenty-five  miles  long,  had  been 
finished  between  Syracuse  and  Auburn;  but  it  was  not 
until  1839,  when  another  winter  had  passed,  that  the 
link  between  Utica  and  Syracuse  was  completed.  This 


FIG.  19.  THE  TWENTIETH  CENTURY  LIMITED 

ran  much  of  the  way  through  woods  and  swamps,  and 
in  some  cases  timbers  or  piles  had  to  be  driven  deep  to 
hold  up  the  track. 

These  roads  were  built  by  different  companies,  with 
no  idea  of  joining  them  all  into  a  through  line.  When,  in 
time,  there  was  talk  of  this  the  Utica  people  did  not  like 
it.  They  thought  that  it  would  ruin  the  business  of  their 
town  if  passengers  and  freight  need  not  be  changed  there 
and  if  trains  went  rushing  through.  But  after  a  while 
all  the  links  between  New  York  and  Buffalo  were  forged 
into  one  chain,  or  became  a  "trunk  line,"  to  put  it  in 
the  modern  way.  Of  course  it  would  cost  less  to  haul 


58  FROM    TRAIL   TO    RAILWAY 

Genesee  flour  or  Niagara  county  apples  to  New  York  if 
they  could  go  through  in  the  same  car  in  which  they 
were  first  locked.  This  soon  became  so  plain  that  there 
was  no  further  question  as  to  uniting  the  various  roads. 
We  shall  see  how  they  all  became  one. 

Cornelius  Vanderbilt  was  of  Dutch  descent  and  was 
born  on  Staten  island  in  1794.  He  grew  up  in  the 
steamboat  business,  and  by  industry  and  foresight  be 
came  the  owner  of  various  lines  plying  on  the  Hud 
son,  along  the  coast,  and  even  across  the  Atlantic. 
He  had  so  much  to  do  with  shipping  that  at  length 
he  was  known  as  "Commodore"  Vanderbilt,  although 
this  was  a  nickname  and  not  a  real  title.  By  and  by 
he  began  to  buy  railroads,  and  by  1869  he  was  able 
to  unite  those  of  the  Hudson  and  those  west  of  Albany 
into  the  New  York  Central  and  Hudson  River  Railroad. 
His  descendants  have  bought  or  leased  many  other  roads, 
which,  taken  together,  are  often  called  the  Vanderbilt 
system.  This  reaches  far  westward  into  many  states  and 
joins  other  great  cities  to  the  metropolis  by  lines  of 
steel. 

Railways  in  Michigan  and  Ohio  were  tied  to  Vander- 
bilt's  road,  and  wheat  and  many  other  products  came 
to  Buffalo  not  only  on  cars  but  by  ships  on  the  Great 
Lakes,  and  were  then  sent  to  New  York  and  across  the 
ocean.  So  the  canal  gradually  did  less  business  and  the 
railroad  did  more,  for  people  could  travel  faster  by  rail, 
and  some  things,  like  meat  and  fruit,  must  be  carried 
swiftly  or  they  will  spoil  on  the  way.  Now,  instead  of 
ten-ton  boats  on  the  Mohawk,  or  the  slow-going  craft 
of  "Clinton's  Ditch,"  great  freight  trains  rush  down 


THE   NEW  YORK   CENTRAL   RAILWAY  59 

the  Mohawk  valley,  bearing  nearly  a  hundred  thousand 
bushels  of  grain  behind  one  engine.  Such  a  load  would 
have  fed  George  Washington's  armies  for  a  long  time. 
After  a  while  one  track  was  not  sufficient  for  so  many 
trains  going  east  and  west.  Too  much  time  was  lost 
in  waiting  on  sidings  and  there  was  danger  of  collision. 
For  this  reason  a  second  track  was  put  down,  then  a 


FICJ.  20.    ROUNDING  THE  NOSES,  MOHAWK  VALLEY 

third  and  a  fourth,  and  now  all  the  way  from  Albany  to 
Buffalo  there  are  two  tracks  for  passenger  trains  and 
two  for  freight.  Down  the  Hudson  there  are  but  two 
tracks,  because  the  space  between  the  river  and  the  up 
lands  is  so  narrow.  Many  years  ago  a  rival  road,  called 
the  West  Shore  Railway,  was  built  along  the  west  bank 
of  the  Hudson,  and  then  westward  to  Buffalo.  This  with 
its  two  tracks  was  bough4-  by  the  owners  of  the  Central 


60  FROM   TRAIL  TO    RAILWAY 

road,  so  that  now  they  have  six  tracks  across  the  state. 
Even  these  are  hardly  enough,  for  every  year  the  great 
West  has  more  people,  raises  more  grain  to  ship  to 
eastern  cities  and  to  Europe,  and  requires  more  goods 
from  mills  and  factories  along  the  Atlantic  coast. 

There  are  many  local  trains  that  run  between  New 
York  and  Albany,  or  Albany  and  Syracuse,  or  Syra 
cuse  and  Buffalo.  These  are  convenient  for  the  smaller 
towns  and  cities.  Then  there  are  many  through  trains 
whose  destination  is  Buffalo,  Detroit,  Chicago,  Indian 
apolis,  or  St.  Louis.  Quickly  changing  cars  at  lake 
Michigan  or  the  Mississippi  river,  the  traveler  is  hurried 
on  to  the  Rocky  mountains,  the  Pacific  ocean,  Alaska, 
or  the  lands  of  Asia  or  Australia  across  the  sea. 

The  New  York  Central  is  not  the  only  great  road  that 
runs  westward  through  the  state.  The  Erie  road  was 
built  through  the  southern  counties  from  New  York  to 
lake  Erie,  partly  because  the  townships  through  which 
it  runs  were  jealous  of  the  privileges  which  the  great 
canal  gave  to  the  people  farther  north.  The  Delaware, 
Lackawanna  and  Western  also  comes  from  New  York 
through  the  coal  region  of  Pennsylvania,  and  runs  near 
the  Erie  road  to  Buffalo. 

The  larger  cities  and  the  greater  number  of  towns  are, 
however,  along  the  Central  Railway.  Going  up  the 
Hudson  and  the  Mohawk,  the  traveler  will  hardly  pass 
one  busy  town  before  he  is  in  sight  of  another.  When 
he  looks  across  the  river  and  sees  Nevvburg  he  will 
remember  that  in  a  plain  old  house  in  that  city  General 
Washington  had  his  headquarters.  When  he  comes  in 
sight  of  Albany  he  will  see  the  great  Capitol  building 


THE    NEW  YORK   CENTRAL   RAILWAY  6l 

standing  high  over  all  others.  At  Schenectady  he  will 
think  of  Arent  Van  Curler  and  the  old  boatmen  and 
the  dreadful  French  and  Indian  massacre.  At  Utica 
he  will  pass  the  ford  where  thousands  waded  the  river 
as  they  went  to  the  wilderness.  At  Rome  he  will  be 
reminded  of  the  famous  carry  of  Fort  Stanwix,  of  St. 
Leger,  and  of  the  heroes  who  drove  him  back  to  the 
north.  At  Syracuse  he  will  ride  through  miles  of  closely 
built  streets,  and  as  he  leaves  the  city  on  the  west  he  will 
see  ancient  vats  with  low  sliding  roofs.  In  these  vats 
countless  bushels  of  salt  have  been  made,  as  the  sun  has 
slowly  drawn  off  the  water  of  the  brine  in  vapor.  There 
Were  buildings,  too,  with  chimneys  and  great  boilers  for 
making  salt  ;  but  in  the  main  the  city  has  other  inter 
ests  now.  It  has  mills  and  large  stores,  and  is  a  railway 
center. 

At  Rochester  our  traveler  crosses  the  Genesee,  and 
remembers  the  hardy  pioneer  who  left  comfortable  old 
Hagerstown  to  build  a  city  in  the  swamp  and  forest. 
Colonel  Rochester  could  have  had  no  idea  of  the  fine 
city  he  was  starting,  or  of  the  orchards,  nurseries,  and 
wheat  fields  that  would  be  around  it,  but  he  lived  long 
enough  to  see  the  flour  mills  at  the  falls  doing  a  thriving 
business.  Thus  wheat  and  flour  made  Rochester  as  salt 
made  Syracuse,  and  first  the  canal  and  then  the  great 
railway  took  these  useful  things  to  market. 

An  hour  or  two  more  and  the  train  pulls  into  Buffalo, 
the  second  city  of  New  York,  looking  on  the  lake  and 
stretching  out  its  hands  to  the  great  world  of  inland  sea 
and  prairie.  To  Buffalo  come  coal  and  iron  and  meat 
and  wheat  and  corn.  Here  great  elevators  receive  grain 


62  FROM   TRAIL  TO    RAILWAY 

from  the  ships  and  load  canal  boats  and  railway  cars  for 
the  east.  Here  some  of  the  New  York  Central  trains 
turn  north  and  go  by  Niagara  through  Canada  to  the 
west,  while  others  pass  off  to  the  south  and  west  and 
go  to  Cleveland,  Toledo,  and  Chicago.  Since  the  day 
when  the  two  kegs  were  filled  with  water  from  lake 
Erie,  Buffalo  has  become  a  large  city,  a  gateway  of  the 
East  and  West.  And  since  the  De  Witt  Clinton  train 
crept  from  Albany  to  Schenectady,  the  New  York  Central 
Railway  has  become  great  also,  for  every  day  hundreds 
of  trains  of  goods  and  men  are  coming  and  going  between 
the  Lakes  and  the  city  by  the  sea. 


CHAPTER   VI 

OLD  JOURNEYS  FROM   PHILADELPHIA  TO 
THE  WEST 

The  people  of  New  York  City  like  to  say  that  Phila 
delphia  is  slow,  and  would  almost  make  one  think  that 
all  the  men  there  wear  Quaker  hats  and  act  like  William 
Penn.  The  citizens  of  Philadelphia,  however,  are  not  much 
troubled  by  this,  for  they  have  a  great  and  busy  city, 
and  they  like  to  remind  the  men  of  New  York  that  Phila 
delphia  is  a  "city  of  homes,"  and  that  the  people  do  not 
live  in  great  tenement  houses  nor  do  all  their  business 
in  "sky  scrapers."  The  Liberty  Bell  hangs  there,  the 
Continental  Congress  sat  there,  and  the  home  of  the 
federal  government  was  there  before  it  was  in  Washing 
ton.  For  a  long  time  the  Quaker  City  was  the  metropo 
lis  of  America,  but  as  New  York  and  Baltimore  grew 
they  took  away  some  of  the  trade  that  otherwise  would 
have  gone  to  the  city  on  the  Delaware.  It  also  ceased 
to  be  the  capital  of  the  nation  and  thus  had  to  depend 
more  on  its  shipping  and  inland  business.  Now  to  do 
much  inland  business  it  was  necessary  not  only  to  reach 
the  rich  lowlands  at  hand  but  also  to  send  out  across  the 
mountains.  This  could  not  be  done  without  roads. 

When  men  went  from  New  York  City  across  the 
mountains  they  found  the  Great  Lakes  and  the  rich 

63 


64  FROM    TRAIL   TO    RAILWAY 

plains  on  their  shores.  So  Philadelphia,  looking  over  her 
mountain  wall,  saw  the  noble  valley  of  the  Ohio  river 
and  the  young  Pittsburg  at  its  gateway.  As  New  York 
found  a  route  to  the  West,  so  Philadelphia  sought  out 
its  highways  to  the  country  beyond  the  Appalachian 
mountains.  In  this  chapter  and  the  next  we  shall  see 
where  these  highways  ran. 

The  first  roads  were  little  like  those  of  to-day,  and  the 
stage  drivers  had  to  be  steady,  cool-headed  men.  There 
were  many  stumps  and  logs  in  what  was  called  a  road, 
and  the  teams  were  guided  less  by  reins  than  by  shouts 
in  a  kind  of  language  which  the  horses  understood.  A 
traveler  between  Philadelphia  and  Washington  said  that 
often  the  driver  would  call  to  the  passengers  to  lean 
out  of  the  carriage  on  one  side  or  the  other,  so  that 
their  weight  might  keep  the  balance  even.  He  would 
say,  "  Now,  gentlemen,  to  the  right ! "  and  the  men 
would  lean  out  as  far  as  they  could  ;  or,  "  Now,  gentle 
men,  to  the  left !  "  and  over  they  would  swing  to  the 
other  side. 

It  took  strong  wagons  to  travel  such  roads,  and  some 
times  the  wheels  were  cut  solid  by  sawing  off  short  sec 
tions  of  the  butt  of  a  great  tree^  much  as  the  wheels 
of  a  toy  cart  have  been  made  by  many  boys.  When  a 
driver  was  stuck  in  the  mud  he  had  to  wait  for  other 
teams  to  come  up,  when  they  would  hook  on  with  him 
and  drag  him  out  upon  hard  ground  again.  They  were 
a  rough  but  sociable  company,  the  vteamsters  of  those 
days,  feeding  their  horses  and  cracking  their  jokes  at 
the  taverns  which  lined  the  turnpikes.  They  would 
stand  by  one  another  loyally,  but  when  they  met  some 


OLD   JOURNEYS    FROM    PHILADELPHIA         65 

fine  gentleman  on  the  road  they  did  not  object  to  taking 
off  a  wheel  or  crushing  the  frame  of  his  light  carriage. 

Out  of  West  Philadelphia  to-day  leads  a  street  known 
as  Lancaster  avenue.  It  is  the  eastern  end  of  the  old 
"  Lancaster  pike,"  the  town  which  gave  name  to  the 
road  being  sixty-six  miles  to  the  west.  This  is  the  oldest 
turnpike  road  in  the  United  States.  When  the  pioneers 


FIG.  21.  PKNN  SQUARE,  LANCASTER,  PENNSYLVANIA,  LOOKING 
EAST  ALONG  THE  "  LANCASTER  PlKE" 

were  clearing  up  the  forests  and  building  the  Genesec 
road  in  New  York  this  region  was  already  well  settled. 
If  you  ride  from  Philadelphia  to  Lancaster  to-day,  you 
will  see  that  it  is  an  old  country,  and  you  will  not  think 
it  strange  when  you  learn  that  so  long  ago  as  1730,  two 
years  before  the  birth  of  Washington,  some  of  the  inhab 
itants  were  moving  out  beyond  Lancaster.  This  means 


66  FROM   TRAIL   TO    RAILWAY 

that  they  went  west  of  the  Susquehanna,  for  Lancaster 
is  only  about  twelve  miles  east  of  that  great  river. 

Many  of  the  earlier  settlers  of  this  lowland  region 
west  of  Philadelphia  were  Germans.  William  Penn  had 
invited  some  of  these  people  to  come,  and  they  had  set 
tled  near  by  in  the  place  now  known  as  Germantown. 
In  time  many  others  settled  both  around  Lancaster 
and  farther  west.  Hence  we  hear  of  "  Pennsylvania 
Dutch,"  although  they  were  not  really  Dutch,  which  is 
a  term  belonging  rather  to  Hollanders  and  their  descend 
ants.  There  were  also  some  Scotch-Irish,  as  they  were 
called,  — descendants  of  Scotch  people  who  had  migrated 
to  the  north  of  Ireland,  whence  their  children  had  come 
to  America.  These  were  Presbyterians,  and  some  of  them 
had  settled  in  New  Jersey,  where  they  founded  Prince 
ton  College. 

The  country  between  Philadelphia  and  the  Susque 
hanna  is  one  of  the  richest  and  most  fertile  regions  in 
the  world.  Most  of  it  is  low,  with  gently  rolling  fields 
and  a  few  higher  hills.  One  fine  farm  joins  another,  and 
the  great  stone  houses  look  as  strong  and  as  solid  as  if 
they  had  grown  up  out  of  the  ground.  Huge  chimneys 
rise  from  the  roofs  and  make  one  think  of  the  warm 
fire-places  and  well-spread  tables  of  the  thrifty  German 
farmers  who  built  these  houses  and  lived  in  them.  The 
barns,  like  the  houses,  are  large  ;  they  are  often  built  of 
stone  and  whitewashed,  and  they  still  hold  great  harvests. 
One  side  of  the  barn  usually  reaches  several  feet  beyond 
the  high  foundation,  and  is  called  an  "  overshoot."  As  the 
doors  to  the  stables  are  under  this,  it  seems  to  have  been 
planned  as  a  protection  against  storms. 


OLD   JOURNEYS    FROM    PHILADELPHIA         67 

An  English  traveler  went  over  the  Lancaster  pike  in 
1796  and  found  it  worthy  of  praise.  He  said  that  it 
was  paved  with  stone,  covered  with  gravel,  and  could 
be  traversed  in  any  season  of  the  year.  About  one  mile 
east  of  the  public  square  in  Lancaster  a  fine  old  arched 
bridge  of  stone  carries  the  turnpike  across  Conestoga 
creek,  a  stream  flowing  southward  into  the  Susquehanna. 


FIG.  22.   BRIDGE  ON  THE  "  PIKE  "  CROSSING  CONESTOGA  CREEK  ONE 
MILE  EAST  OF  PENN  SQUARE,  LANCASTER,  PENNSYLVANIA 

It  takes  its  name,  which  has  become  famous  in  American 
history,  from  a  small  tribe  of  Indians  who  lived  on  its 
borders.  The  early  inhabitants  made  the  water  deeper 
by  building  dams  with  locks,  and  sailed  their  boats  with 
loads  of  produce  down  to  the  Susquehanna.  In  the  com 
mon  phrase  of  that  time,  they  spoke  of  it  as  the  "  Cones- 
toga  navigation." 

But   the  most   interesting  thing  to  which   the  name 
Conestoga  was  given  was  a  wagon  that  was  invented  in 


68 


FROM    TRAIL   TO    RAILWAY 


this  region.  It  was  made  very  large  and  strong,  to  carry 
freight,  and  was  drawn  by  four,  seven,  or  even  a  dozen 
horses.  Hundreds  of  these  wagons  were  to  be  seen  on 
the  Lancaster  pike  and  on  the  other  great  roads  of  that 
time.  They  were  built,  as  freight  cars  are  now,  to  carry 
heavy  loads  long  distances  in  safety. 

These   wagons  were   unusually  long,  and   the   boxes 
curved  upward  at  the  ends,  so  that  inside  and  out  they 


FIG.  23.  TOLLHOUSE  EIGHT  MILES  EAST  OF  LANCASTER, 
PENNSYLVANIA 

were  shaped  somewhat  like  a  canoe.  The  advantage  of 
this  was  that  the  loads  did  not  slide,  but  rode  steadily 
when  the  wagons  went  up  and  down  steep  hills.  The 
wheels  were  big  and  had  wide  tires,  so  that  the  heavy 
loads  would  not  cut  the  roads.  The  story  is  told  that 
one  of  these  wagons  with  its  load  of  tobacco  weighed 
more  than  thirteen  thousand  pounds,  or  almost  seven 
tons. 


OLD   JOURNEYS    FROM    PHILADELPHIA         69 

They  were  painted  red  and  blue,  and  were  covered 
with  a  canopy  of  cloth,  so  that  they  looked  like  the 
"prairie  schooners"  which  in  later  days  were  the  emi 
grant  wagons  of  the  western  plains.  Each  wagon  had  a 
tool  box  fastened  at  the  side,  and  a  tar  bucket  and  a 
water  pail  hung  beneath.  The  horses  were  well  fed,  well 
matched,  and  strong,  with  good  harnesses  and  many 
jingling  bells.  The  drivers  were  rough-and-ready  men, 
who  snapped  their  whips  in  the  daytime,  told  stories  in 
the  evening,  and  slept  at  night  on  little  mattresses  of 
their  own  in  front  of  the  barroom  fire. 

Hundreds  of  these  wagons  were  going  and  coming  on 
the  roads  in  the  days  when  people  were  not  dreaming  of 
freight  trains,  and  no  doubt  the  Conestoga  seemed  as 
important  then  as  the  chief  freight  lines  now  appear 
to  us.  In  the  French  and  Indian  War,  when  there  was 
great  need  of  wagons  to  carry  Braddock's  stores,  Benjamin 
Franklin  was  asked  to  get  some  of  these  famous  convey 
ances.  He  succeeded,  for  many  were  to  be  found  in  this 
part  of  Pennsylvania,  and  he  sent  on  more  than  one 
hundred  and  fifty  of  them.  He  nearly  lost  his  fortune 
in  consequence,  for  he  told  the  farmers  he  would  see 
that  they  were  paid  if  the  wagons  and  horses  were 
not  returned.  It  cost  the  old  patriot  twenty  thousand 
pounds,  but  fortunately  the  government  afterwards  paid 
the  money  back  to  him.  Not  long  ago  the  writer  saw 
one  of  these  wagons,  with  a  boat-shaped  box,  but  without 
a  canopy,  in  use  on  a  farm  near  Lancaster. 

Following  the  pike  westward  for  twelve  miles  from 
Lancaster,  the  traveler  crosses  the  Susquehanna  river 
at  Columbia.  The  old  bridge  was  destroyed  long  ago, 


70  FROM   TRAIL   TO    RAILWAY 

but  the  present  one,  although  it  looks  new,  is  hardly 
used  in  a  modern  way.  It  is  narrow,  with  a  plank  floor, 
and  it  serves  for  railway  trains  and  wagons,  as  well  as 
for  foot  passengers.  There  is  no  separate  place  for  any 
of  these,  so  when  a  train  or  wagon  goes  on  at  either 
end  a  telegram  is  sent  to  the  other  end  to  keep  cars 
and  carriages  from  entering  the  bridge  there. 


FIG.  24.  HAMBRIGHT'S  HOTEL,  ON  THE  "  PIKE,"  THREE  MILES 
WEST  OF  LANCASTER,  PENNSYLVANIA 

Along  the  "  Pike  "  is  an  electric  road,  which  carries 
people  more  swiftly  and  doubtless  with  less  dust  and  jolt 
ing  than  did  the  old  stages.  Hambright's  Hotel,  shown 
in  the  picture  above,  is  on  this  road,  and,  with  its  big- 
chimneys  and  high,  long-handled  pump,  shows  how  many 
of  the  ancient  hotels  looked.  They  seem  lonely  enough 
now,  but  they  were  gay  and  busy  places  then.  It  is  very 
appropriate  that  the  company  which  runs  all  the  street 
cars  in  and  about  Lancaster  calls  itself  The  Conestoga 
Traction  Company. 


OLD   JOURNEYS    FROM    PHILADELPHIA         71 

Westward  from  the  Susquehanna,  in  what  we  shall 
know  in  a  later  chapter  as  the  Great  Valley,  are  some 
comfortable  old  towns  bearing  the  names  of  Carlisle, 
Shippensburg,  and  Chambersburg.  The  pike  passes 
through  these  and  on  to  the  old  town  of  Bedford.  Then 
it  enters  a  high,  rough  strip  of  land  that  was  covered 
with  forest  long  after  Philadelphia  had  become  a  city 


FIG.  25.  OLD  ROAD  HOUSE,  ONE  MILE  WEST  OF  CHAMBERSBURG, 
PENNSYLVANIA 

and  the  farmers  about  Lancaster  had  built  their  great 
houses  and  barns.  At  the  other  end  of  this  wilderness 
was  Pittsburg.  The  road  from  Bedford  to  Pittsburg  was 
cut  through  the  woods  in  1758,  in  the  time  of  the  French 
and  Indian  wars,  and  is  sometimes  called  Forbes' s  road, 
from  the  general  who  directed  the  making  of  it.  It  was 
used  in  the  time  of  the  Revolution,  and  many  forts  were 
built  to  guard  it. 

This  roadway  was  so  important  that  the  Pennsylvania 
government,  a  few  years  after  the  Revolutionary  War, 


72  FROM   TRAIL   TO   RAILWAY 

took  it  in  hand  and  improved  it.  Thus  there  was  a  line 
of  travel  over  the  older  highway  to  Lancaster  and  Bed 
ford,  and  thence  over  the  newer  road  to  Pittsburg.  The 
whole  road  led  from  the  seaboard  to  the  Ohio  river  and 
was  often  called  the  Pittsburg  pike. 

We  have  now  learned  of  two  great,  well-trodden  routes 
from  east  to  west,  —  the  route  of  the  Hudson  and  the 
Mohawk  through  New  York,  and  the  route  through 
the  southern  parts  of  Pennsylvania  from  Philadelphia 
to  Pittsburg. 

In  laying  out  such  roads  the  pioneers  almost  always 
followed  trails  that  the  Indians  had  made.  For  long 
generations  the  red  men  had  followed  the  same  paths, 
beating  them  smooth  and  deep  in  the  forest  earth.  The 
white  men  widened  the  trail  by  using  pack  horses,  load 
ing  the  beasts  well  with  all  sorts  of  things.  The  next 
step  was  to  cut  away  trees,  take  out  the  stones,  and  make 
roads  for  wagons.  Carrying  by  pack  horses,  however, 
had  become  a  great  business,  and  the  horse  owners 
were  very  angry  when  the  wagons  began  to  take  away 
their  trade. 

In  1830  a  Pennsylvania  citizen,  then  nearly  a  hundred 
years  old,  told  of  seeing  the  first  wagon  reach  Carlisle, 
and  he  remembered  how  furious  the  "packers"  were 
because  they  feared  that  they  would  lose  their  business. 
It  did  not  occur  to  them  that  they  could  harness  their 
horses  into  teams,  buy  strong  wagons,  and  be  ready  to 
make  money  in  the  new  way  instead  of  the  old.  The 
horse  owners  were  quite  as  angry  about  stagecoaches, 
and  they  sometimes  destroyed  the  coaches  and  injured 
the  passengers  to  vent  their  spite.  Moreover,  as  people 


OLD   JOURNEYS    FROM    PHILADELPHIA         73 

often  like  an  excuse  for  doing  wrong,  and  for  harboring 
mean  feelings,  these  men  said  that  the  stage  business 
was  bad  for  the  cloth  makers  and  tailors,  because  people 
could  ride  in  coaches  without  spoiling  their  fine  clothes, 
whereas  when  they  rode  on  horseback  they  soon  ruined 
them  and  had  to  buy  new  ones.  Almost  any  excuse  will 
serve  those  to  whom  no  way  seems  good  except  their  own. 
Philadelphia  now  had  its  connection  with  Pittsburg 
and  the  Ohio  river  and  the  rich  lands  bordering  it,  as 
New  York  had  its  way  leading  to  Buffalo  and  the  Great 
Lakes  and  the  prairies.  But  the  southern  road  crossed 
a  rougher  country  than  did  the  northern  one,  and  so  it 
was  less  easily  kept  in  order  and  was  harder  to  travel. 
Hence  Philadelphia,  like  New  York,  sought  better  means 
of  communication  with  the  country  on  the  other  side  of 
the  mountains. 


CHAPTER  VII 

THE  PENNSYLVANIA  RAILROAD 

A  horse  railroad  had  been  built  from  Philadelphia  to 
the  Susquehanna  river,  and  the  big  Conestoga  wagons 
were  running  along  the  pike  to  Pittsburg ;  but  this  was 
not  enough.  New  York  had  stirred  the  whole  country 
by  its  great  canal,  and  the  people  along  the  Potomac 
were  thinking  of  similar  schemes.  Pennsylvania  could 
not  rest  idle,  and  decided  to  have  a  canal  of  its  own. 

In  1826  the  ditch  was  begun  at  Columbia,  where 
the  railroad  ended,  and,  following  the  custom  of  the 
times,  those  in  charge  started  the  work  on  Independ 
ence  Day.  In  four  years  they  had  dug  the  canal,  let  in 
the  water,  and  were  running  boats  as  far  as  Harrisburg. 

A  few  miles  above  Harrisburg  the  canal  turned  away 
from  the  main  river  and  followed  its  great  western  branch, 
the  Juniata.  This  river  cuts  through  the  high  ridges,  or 
flows  between  them  as  best  it  can,  taking  a  very  winding 
course.  The  valley  is  often  narrow  and  its  sides  are 
steep  and  rugged.  Still  it  has  no  heavy  grades  along  the 
bottom,  and  it  led  the  canal  diggers  far  into  the  moun 
tains,  to  a  village  called  Hollidaysburg. 

Here  thie  highlands  are  so  steep  that  the  canal  had  to 
stop.  The  Allegheny  Front  is  almost  fourteen  hundred 
feet  above  Hollidaysburg,  and  on  the  other  side  the 

74 


THE    PENNSYLVANIA    RAILROAD 


75 


Conemaugh  river  rushes 
swiftly  down  past  the  city 
of  Johnstown,  which  is 
seven  hundred  and  sev 
enty-one  feet  below  the 
summit.  H  olliday  sburg 
and  Johnstown  are  thirty- 
eight  miles  apart,  and  the 
uplands  lying  between  are 
so  steep  and  high  that  to 
cut  through  them  was  out 
of  the  question.  But  those 
who  were  interested  in  the 
canal  were  not  to  be  beaten, 
and  they  kept  on  digging 
both  to  the  east  and  to 
the  west.  Beyond  Johns 
town  they  carried  the 
canal  to  the  Ohio  river 
at  Pittsburg. 

Meantime  the  high 
grounds  on  the  divide  were 
not  neglected.  A  famous 
road,  the  Allegheny  Port 
age  Railway,  was  built  with 
several  inclined  planes. 
Stationary  engines  pulled 
the  cars  up  each  slope, 
but  on  the  level  parts  of 
the  road  they  were  drawn 
by  horses. 


76 


FROM    TRAIL   TO    RAILWAY 


The  road  was  not  carried  to  the  top,  but  nearly  two 
hundred  feet  below  a  tunnel  was  cut  about  a  mile  long. 
The  entrance  to  one  end  of  this  tunnel  is  shown  in  Fig.  27. 

The  two  great  sections  of  the  canal  and  the  Portage 
Railway  were  finished  in  1835.  Goods  then  went  by 


FIG.  27.  ENTRANCE  TO  TUNNEL,  OLD  PORTAGE  RAILWAY 

rail  from  Philadelphia  to  Columbia  on  the  Susquehanna 
river.  There  the  boats  took  them  to  the  east  end  of  the 
Portage  road.  The  next  haul  was  over  the  Allegheny 
Front,  with  its  lofty  forests,  to  Johnstown.  Then  the 
boats  received  the  merchandise  and  landed  it  in  Pitts- 
burg,  whence  other  boats  could  carry  it  to  any  town  on 
the  Ohio  river. 


THE   PENNSYLVANIA   RAILROAD 


77 


The  Hit  or  Miss  was  one  of  the  boats  that  came 
up  to  Hollidaysburg.  It  was  desirable  to  take  this  par 
ticular  boat  over  the  heights,  so  a  car  was  built  which 
would  fit  its  keel.  The  car  was  dragged  up  the  east  side 
of  the  mountain  and  down  to  Johnstown,  where  the  boat 


FIG.  28.  BROAD  STREET  STATION,  PHILADELPHIA:  PENNSYLVANIA 
RAILROAD 

was  put  into  the  water  again  and  sent  off  to  the  Missis 
sippi  river.  We  can  now  look  across  a  gorge  from  the 
coaches  of  the  Pennsylvania  Railroad,  beyond  Altoona, 
and  see  the  grade  of  the  old  Portage  Railway. 

The  canal  almost  put  out  of  business  the  Conestoga 
wagons  on  the  dusty  pike  which  had  seen  so  much  travel 
by  way  of  Carlisle  and  Bedford.  But  the  people  did  not 


78  FROM   TRAIL  TO   RAILWAY 

stop  with  a  canal.  Like  the  men  of  New  York,  they 
wanted  something  even  better  than  that.  They  wished 
to  have  a  railroad  all  the  way,  and  in  1846  the  Penn 
sylvania  Railroad  Company  was  incorporated.  By  this 
time  it  was  very  well  known  that  railroads  were  success 
ful  both  in  America  and  in  England,  and  that  steam  was 
better  than  horses. 

Over  the  Allegheny  Front  a  route  was  found  where 
the  grades  were  not  too  steep  for  locomotives.  The 
grade,  of  course,  had  been  the  one  great  hindrance  to 
the  whole  project,  and  when  this  difficulty  was  overcome 
there  was  no  reason  why  passengers  should  not  be  carried 
from  Philadelphia  to  Pittsburg,  or  a  load  of  iron  from 
Pittsburg  to  Philadelphia,  without  changing  cars.  In  the 
year  1854  the  Pennsylvania  people  triumphed,  for  they 
had  conquered  the  mountains  and  could  run  trains  from 
the  banks  of  the  Delaware  to  the  Ohio  river. 

If  we  leave  Philadelphia  by  the  great  Broad  street 
station  of  the  Pennsylvania  Railroad,  we  shall  pass  out 
among  the  pleasant  homes  of  West  Philadelphia  and 
through  the  fine  farms  of  the  Pennsylvania  lowlands, 
until  we  come,  in  about  an  hour  and  a  half,  to  the  staid 
old  city  of  Lancaster.  We  have  been  here  before,  to 
learn  of  turnpikes  and  Conestoga  freighters 

The  next  stop,  if  we  are  on  an  express  train,  will  be  at 
Harrisburg,  a  little  more  than  a  hundred  miles  from  Phila 
delphia.  We  have  now  come  from  the  Delaware  to  the 
Susquehanna,  and  are  close  to  the  mountains.  Before  we 
go  in  among  them  let  us  see  Harrisburg.  It  is  a  city  of 
fifty  thousand  people,  and  lies  along  the  east  bank  of  the 
Susquehanna,  which  here  is  a  great  river  a  mile  wide, 


THE    PENNSYLVANIA   RAILROAD  79 

having  gathered  its  tribute  of  waters  from  hundreds  of 
branching  streams  in  Pennsylvania  and  New  York. 

Not  far  to  the  east  a  small  stream  runs  parallel  to 
the  main  river,  and  the  larger  part  of  Harrisburg  is  on 
higher  ground  between  the  two.  On  the  highest  part  of 
this  ridge  is  the  state  capitol,  a  great  building  but  re 
cently  finished.  Harrisburg  is  at  the  right  point  for  the 
state  government.  It  is  not  in  the  center  of  the  state, 
to  be  sure,  but  it  is  at  the  rear  of  the  lowlands  which 


FIG.  29.  BRIDGE,  PENNSYLVANIA  RAILROAD,  ABOVE  HARRISBURG 

reach  in  from  the  sea,  and  is  just  outside  the  great  gate 
way  where  roads  from  all  the  northern,  western,  and 
central  uplands  come  out  on  the  plain.  It  is  a  convenient 
center  for  coal  and  iron,  and  hence  one  sees  along 
the  river  below  the  city  many  blast  furnaces,  rolling 
mills,  and  factories.  To  the  northeast  rich,  open  lands 
stretch  along  the  base  of  Blue  mountain,  and  railroads 
join  Harrisburg  to  Reading,  Allentown,  Bethlehem,  and 
Easton.  To  the  southwest  bridges  cross  the  Susque- 
hanna,  and  roads  run  to  Carlisle,  Hagerstown,  and  other 
cities  of  the  Great  Valley  (Chapter  XI). 


8o 


FROM   TRAIL  TO   RAILWAY 


Thus  the  Pennsylvania  Railroad,  running  northwest 
from  Philadelphia,  crosses  at  Harrisburg  other  roads 
that  run  to  the  southwest.  As  hamlets  often  gather 
about  "four  corners"  in  the  country,  so  cities  grow  up 
where  the  great  roads  of  the  world  cross  each  other. 

Leaving  Harris- 
burg  behind,  we  pass 
the  splendid  new 
bridge  of  the  Pennsyl 
vania  Railroad,  across 
the  Susquehanna  (Fig. 
29),  and  go  through 
the  gap  in  Blue  moun 
tain.  Soon  we  turn 
away  from  the  main 
river  and  enter  the 
winding  valley  of  the 
Juniata.  The  grades 
are  easy,  the  roadbed 
is  smooth,  and  by  deep 
cuts  through  the  rocks 


FIG. 


PENNSYLVANIA  RAILROAD 
SHOPS,  ALTOONA 


the  curves  have  been 
made  less  abrupt.  It  is  only  when  one  looks  out  of  the 
car  window  that  the  land  is  found  to  be  rugged  and 
mountainous. 

All  the  greater  valleys  and  ridges  of  the  mountain  belt 
of  Pennsylvania  run  northeast  and  southwest.  The  last  of 
these  to  be  crossed  on  our  journey  is  Bald  Eagle  valley, 
from  which  the  Allegheny  Front  rises  to  the  northwest. 

In  this  valley,  near  the  place  where  the  Portage  Rail 
way  began  to  scale  the  heights,  and  a  little  more  than  a 


THE   PENNSYLVANIA  RAILROAD 


8l 


hundred  miles  from 
Pittsburg,  the  Penn 
sylvania  Railroad 
Company  in  1850 
founded  a  town  and 
called  it  Altoona. 
Here  they  started 
shops,  which  have 
now  grown  to  notable 
importance.  The 
town  became  a  city 
eighteen  years  after 
it  was  begun,  and  has 
to-day  about  forty 
thousand  inhabit 
ants.  In  the  rail 
way  shops  alone  may 
be  found  nine  thou 
sand  men  repairing 
and  building  locomo- 
tives,  passenger 
coaches,  and  freight 
cars.  The  Pennsyl 
vania  Railroad  Com 
pany  is  now  found 
ing  a  great  school  in 
Altoona,  where 
young  men  may  be 
taught  to  become 
skillful  and  efficient 
in  railway  service. 


82  FROM    TRAIL   TO    RAILWAY 

Altoona  looks  new,  and  with  its  endless  freight  yards, 
its  noisy  shops,  and  its  sooty  cover  of  smoke  from  burn 
ing  soft  coal,  it  is  very  different  from  quiet  Lancaster, 
which  was  old  when  forests  covered  the  site  of  Altoona. 

On  our  way  to  Pittsburg  we  are  soon  pulling  up 
the  Allegheny  Front  by  a  great  loop,  or  bend,  which 
enables  the  tracks  to  reach  the  summit  more  than  a 
thousand  feet  above  Altoona.  Nestling  within  the  great 
bend  is  a  reservoir  of  water  to  supply  the  houses  and 
shops  of  the  city  lying  below.  Passing  the  highest  point, 
we  find  ourselves  descending  the  valley  of  the  Cone- 
maugh  river  to  Johnstown,  and  surrounded  by  the  high 
lands  of  the  Allegheny  plateau. 

Johnstown  is  much  older  than  Altoona,  for  it  was 
settled  in  1791,  but  it  has  not  grown  so  fast,  and  has 
only  about  as  many  inhabitants  as  the  city  of  railroad 
shops.  Most  people  know  of  Johnstown  because  of  the 
flood  which  ruined  the  place  in  1889.  Several  miles 
above  the  town  was  a  reservoir  more  than  two  miles 
long  and  in  several  places  one  hundred  feet  deep.  After 
the  heavy  rains  of  that  spring  the  dam  broke  on  the  last 
day  of  May,  and  the  wild  rush  of  waters  destroyed  the 
town.  Homes,  stores,  shops,  and  mills  were  torn  away 
and  carried  down  the  river.  Clara  Barton  of  the  Red 
Cross,  who  went  to  Johnstown  as  soon  as  she  could  get 
there,  says  that  the  few  houses  that  were  not  crushed 
and  strewn  along  the  valley  were  turned  upside  down. 

More  than  two  thousand  men,  women,  and  children 
lost  their  lives,  and  those  that  were  left  were  in  mourning 
and  poverty.  The  whole  land  sent  in  its  gifts  of  money, 
clothing,  and  food,  and  the  town  was  built  up  again  into  a 


THE    PENNSYLVANIA   RAILROAD  83 

prosperous  city.  Near  the  city  are  found  coal,  iron,  lime 
stone,  and  fire  clay,  and  these  things  make  it  easy  to  estab 
lish  iron  works.  The  Cambria  Steel  Company  gives  work 
to  ten  thousand  men  in  its  shops,  mines,  and  furnaces. 

The  main  line  of  the  Pennsylvania  Railroad  runs 
down  the  rugged  Conemaugh  valley  through  Johnstown, 
and  is  its  chief  means  of  traffic.  As  we  go  on  to  the 
west  we  near  Pittsburg,  but  first  we  pass  through  a 
number  of  stirring  towns.  At  one  place  fire  bricks  are 
made,  and  the  clay  for  molding  them  and  the  coal  for 
burning  them  are  found  in  the  same  hill.  In  another 
town  there  are  coal  mines  and  glass  works.  Farther 
west  the  Pennsylvania  road  has  more  repair  shops,  and 
Braddock  is  the  great  Carnegie  town.  We  shall  see  why 
many  thriving  young  cities  have  grown  up  in  this  region 
when  we  take  up  Pittsburg,  about  which  they  are  all 
clustered. 

At  Pittsburg  we  pull  into  one  of  the  finest  railway 
stations  in  the  United  States.  We  may  stop  in  the  city 
of  coal  and  iron,  or  we  may  go  on  to  the  west,  over  one 
of  the  main  arms  of  the  Pennsylvania  Railroad  system. 
If  we  take  the  northern  branch,  it  will  carry  us  across 
Ohio  to  Fort  Wayne  in  Indiana  and  to  Chicago.  If  we 
board  a  train  on  the  southern  arm,  we  shall  go  through 
Columbus  and  Indianapolis,  and  be  set  down  on  the 
farther  side  of  the  Mississippi  river  at  St.  Louis. 

North  and  south  from  the  great  east  and  west  trunk 
lines  run  many  shorter  roads,  or  "spurs."  On  the  east 
there  is  a  network  of  short  roads  in  New  Jersey,  and  one  of 
the  busiest  parts  of  the  whole  system  is  that  which  joins 
Washington  to  Baltimore,  Philadelphia,  and  New  York. 


84  FROM    TRAIL  TO 

West  from  Philadelphia  for  a  long  distance  there  are 
four  tracks,  and  on  either  side  may  be  seen  neat  hedges, 
such  as  one  finds  along  the  railways  of  England.  In  the 
mountains  it  is  often  hard  to  make  a  roadbed  wide 
enough  for  four  tracks,  and  hence  there  may  be  only 


FIG.  32.  ROCK  CUT,  ALONG  THE  LINE  OF  THE  PENNSYLVANIA 
RAILROAD 

three  or  even  two  in  some  places.  No  doubt  four  will 
in  time  be  built  through  to  Pittsburg,  for  many  millions 
of  dollars  are  spent  in  improving  the  road.  Instead  of 
having  a  long  circuit  around  the  hills,  tunnels  and  vast 
cuts  in  the  bed  rock  are  made  so  as  to  straighten  the 
line.  Thus  both  passenger  and  freight  trains  are  able  to 


THE   PENNSYLVANIA   RAILROAD  85 

make  better  time,  and  the  road  can  carry  the  stores,  of 
iron  and  coal  which  are  found  in  the  lands  on  either  side. 

Some  of  the  freight  yards  are  always  crowded  with 
cars,  and  at  Harrisburg  the  company  is  building  separate 
tracks  around  the  city,  so  that  through  freight  trains 
need  not  be  delayed. 

At  New  York  the  Pennsylvania  Railroad  now  has  its 
station  on  the  New  Jersey  side  of  the  Hudson  river, 
but  it  is  building  a  tunnel  under  the  river.  The  com 
pany  has  already  bought  several  city  blocks  and  has  torn 
away  the  buildings.  Here  it  will  build  one  of  the  great 
est  passenger  stations  in  the  world.  The  tunnel  will  run 
on  to  the  east,  under  the  streets  and  shops  of  Man 
hattan,  and  under  the  East  river.  Thus  under  New 
York  and  its  surrounding  waters  trains  can  go  to  the 
east  end  of  Long  Island. 

Pennsylvania  has  told  us  the  same  story  that  we 
learned  from  New  York.  We  read  it  again  :  first,  how 
the  Indian's  path  was  beaten  deeper  and  wider  by  the 
hoofs  of  the  pack  horse,  bearing  goods  to  sell  and  barter 
in  the  wilderness  ;  then  how  strips  of  forest  were  cut 
down  to  make  room  for  the  Conestoga  wagons  and 
the  gay  stages  that  swept  through  from  Philadelphia 
to  Pittsburg.  These  in  their  turn  became  old-fashioned 
when  the  canal  and  Portage  Railway  were  done,  and 
now  we  sit  in  a  car  that  is  like  a  palace,  and  think  canals 
and  Conestogas  very  old  stories  indeed.  In  future  gen 
erations  swift  air  ships  may  take  the  wonder  away  from 
the  Empire  State  Express,  and  make  us  listen  unmoved 
when  a  man,  standing  in  the  station  at  Philadelphia,  calls 
the  limited  train  for  Pittsburg,  Cincinnati,  and  St.  Louis. 


CHAPTER  VIII 

THE  NATIONAL  ROAD 

The  sea  reaches  inland  almost  to  the  northeast  corner 
of  the  state  of  Maryland.  This  long,  wide  arm  of  the 
ocean  receives  many  rivers  and  is  known  as  Chesapeake 
bay.  Near  its  north  end  is  Baltimore,  one  of  the  four 
great  cities  of  our  Atlantic  coast.  It  is  one  hundred 
and  fifty  miles  from  the  open  sea.  If,  instead  of  sailing 
up  the  bay,  we  should  turn  toward  the  west,  we  could 
go  up  the  Potomac  river,  which  is  deep  and  wide.  On 
our  way  we  should  pass  Washington's  estates  at  Mount 
Vernon,  the  old  city  of  Alexandria,  and  the  national 
capital,  Washington.  We  could  not  sail  much  farther 
because  there  are  falls  in  the  Potomac  which  ships  can 
not  pass.  The  Potomac  runs  so  close  to  Chesapeake 
bay  that  it  is  only  forty  miles  from  Washington  across 
to  Baltimore. 

Chesapeake  bay  is  much  like  Delaware  bay  and  the 
tidal  Hudson  river,  only  it  is  larger  than  either.  Balti 
more  is  at  a  greater  distance  from  the  open  sea  than 
Philadelphia  is,  and  Philadelphia  is  farther  inland  than 
New  York,  but  each  of  these  cities  tried  to  get  as  much 
of  the  western  trade  as  it  could. 

The  natural  way  for  the  men  of  Baltimore  and  Alex 
andria  to  go  across  to  the  west  was  up  the  Potomac 

86 


THE    NATIONAL   ROAD 


river  and  through  its  passes  in  the  mountains.  But 
before  they  tried  this  they  had  settled  much  of  the  low, 
flat  land  along  the  Potomac  and  about  the  Chesapeake 
in  Virginia  and  Maryland.  This  was  often  called  "tide 
water  country,"  because  the  beds  of  the  rivers  are  below 
sea  level,  and  the  streams  are  deep  enough  for  boats  of 
some  size. 

When   the   land   was   first   settled   and  the  colonists 
found   that  they  could  go  almost  everywhere  by  boat, 


FIG.  33.  TOLLHOUSE  WEST  OF  BROWNSVILLE,  PENNSYLVANIA 

they  paid  small  heed  to  making  roads.  They  could  visit 
their  neighbors  on  other  plantations  and  they  could  load 
their  tobacco  and  take  it  to  market  by  the  rivers.  Many 
plantations  were  beside  rivers  of  such  great  depth  that 
sailing  vessels  bound  for  London  could  come  up  to  the 
farmer's  wharf  and  get  his  crop  of  tobacco. 

In  early  days  the  members  of  the  legislature  were  not 
always  given  so  much  per  mile  to  pay  the  stage  fares 
between  their  homes  and  the  capital,  but  they  were 


88  FROM   TRAIL   TO    RAILWAY 

allowed  the  cost  of  hiring  boats  instead.  Many  ferries 
were  needed,  and  laws  about  them  were  made  before 
rules  were  laid  down  for  bridges  and  roads.  Several 
lawmakers  at  one  time  would  have  been  fined  for  their 
absence  from  the  legislature  of  the  colony  had  they  not 
been  excused  because  there  was  no  ferry  to  carry  them 
over  the  river  which  they  would  have  had  to  cross. 

Around  Annapolis  "  rolling  roads  "  were  made.  These 
were  wide  paths  made  as  smooth  as  possible,  in  order 
that  large  hogsheads  of  tobacco  might  be  rolled,  each  by 
two  men,  to  the  market  in  that  old  town. 

After  a  time  the  lowlands  of  the  coast  region  began 
to  fill  up  and  the  people  were  pushing  westward,  just  as 
they  did  in  Pennsylvania  and  New  York.  No  man  had 
so  great  a  part  in  this  westward  movement  as  the  young 
surveyor,  George  Washington.  In  1748  he  was  sixteeri 
years  old,  a  tall,  strong  lad,  full  of  courage  and  energy. 
Lord  William  Fairfax,  a  rich  English  gentleman  who 
had  settled  in  Virginia,  had  bought  great  tracts  of  forest 
land  up  the  Potomac  behind  the  Blue  Ridge  mountains, 
and  he  was  eager  to  have  them  surveyed.  Knowing 
that  Washington  had  studied  surveying,  Fairfax  asked 
him  to  undertake  the  task.  The  boy  consented  ;  he  went 
beyond  the  Blue  Ridge  into  the  country  along  the  Shen- 
andoah,  camped  in  the  woods,  swam  the  rivers,  tough 
ened  his  muscles,  learned  the  ways  of  the  red  men,  and 
three  years  later  came  back,  a  grown  man,  ready  for 
great  things. 

While  Washington  was  getting  his  practice  as  a  sur 
veyor  the  Ohio  Company  was  formed  to  take  up  lands 
along  the  Ohio  river,  and  to  keep  the  French  from 


THE    NATIONAL   ROAD  89 

settling  there.  Lawrence,  Washington's  elder  brother,  was 
one  of  the  chief  men  of  this  company.  In  1753  Wash 
ington  himself  went  west  to  the  Ohio  river.  Day  by  day 
the  French  were  taking  a  firmer  hold  of  that  country, 
and  Dinwiddie,  the  old  Scottish  governor  of  Virginia, 
looked  about  for  some  one  to  carry  a  warning  letter  to 
the  commander  of  one  of  their  new  forts.  The  messenger 
was  also  to  keep  his  eyes  open  and  report  what  the 
French  were  doing  on  the  upper  waters  of  the  Ohio. 
He  chose  Washington,  saying,  "  Faith,  you  're  a  brave 
lad,  and,  if  you  play  your  cards  well,  you  shall  have  no 
cause  to  repent  your  bargain."  Washington  did  not  wait, 
but  left  on  the  day  he  received  his  commission,  late 
in  October,  1753. 

Christopher  Gist,  a  famous  frontiersman,  was  secured 
as  guide,  and  we  can  have  no  doubt  that  he  and  Washing 
ton  formed  a  team,  ready  to  meet  Frenchmen,  red  men, 
and  the  dangers  of  river  and  forest.  They  made  up  their 
little  party  where  the  city  of  Cumberland,  Maryland,  now 
stands.  It  is  far  up  the  Potomac,  in  the  heart  of  the 
mountains,  —  a  long  way  beyond  the  Blue  Ridge  and 
the  lands  where  Washington  had  been  surveying. 

At  this  place  a  large  stream  called  Wills  creek  cuts 
through  one  of  the  mountain  ridges  by  a  deep  gorge 
and  enters  the  Potomac.  On  a  hill,  where  these  streams 
come  together,  was  Fort  Cumberland,  the  great  outpost 
of  Virginia  and  Maryland.  A  fine  church  now  stands  on 
the  ground  of  the  old  fort,  in  the  heart  of  the  busy  city 
of  Cumberland.  This  was  the  starting  point  for  Wash 
ington's  expedition  and  for  many  later  ones  into  the 
western  wilderness. 


FROM    TRAIL   TO    RAILWAY 


Washington  made  his  dangerous  journey  with  success. 
He  brought  back  a  letter  from  the  French  commander, 
but  of  much  greater  value  was  the  story  of  all  that  he 
had  seen.  The  colonists  now  knew  just  what  they  would 
have  to  do  to  keep  possession  of  the  Ohio  lands. 

It  was  not  long  before  Washington  went  again  as  com 
manding  officer  of  a  small  army,  and  in  1755  he  served 
under  General  Braddock  in  the  famous  battle  which 

resulted  in  the  defeat 
of  the  English  and  the 
death  of  their  general. 
Washington,  as  we 
know,  brought  off  the 
troops  with  honor  to 
himself.  In  each  of 
these  expeditions 
something  was  done 
toward  cutting  away 
the  trees  and  grading 
a  road  from  Fort  Cum 
berland  to  the  head 
of  the  Ohio  river  at 
Pittsburg. 

On  the  line  of  Brad- 
dock's  road,  a  dozen 

miles  west  of  Cumberland,  is  a  milestone,  set  up  about  a 
hundred  and  fifty  years  ago.  A  photograph  of  it  is  shown 
above.  It  is  a  rough  brown  stone,  standing  in  a  pasture 
half  a  mile  outside  the  city  of  Frostburg,  in  western 
Maryland.  The  stone  was  once  taken  away  and  broken, 
but  it  has  since  been  set  up  again  and  cemented  into 


FIG.  34.  MILESTONE  ON  THE  LINE  OK 
BRADDOCK'S  ROAD,  NEAR  FROSTKURG, 
MARYLAND 


THE    NATIONAL   ROAD  91 

a  base  of  concrete.  The  view  shows  how  it  has  been 
split  up  and  down.  On  one  side  are  directions,  and  on 
the  other  are  the  words,  "  Our  Country's  Rights  We 
Will  Defend." 

Braddock's  journey  from  Alexandria  to  Fort  Duquesne 
was  an  uncomfortable  one,  to  say  nothing  of  its  disastrous 
end.  He  bought  a  carriage  to  ride  in,  but  the  road  was 
not  suited  to  a  coach,  as  were  the  roads  he  knew  in  old 
England.  Beyond  Cumberland,  especially,  in  spite  of  all 
the  work  his  men  could  do  upon  it,  it  was  so  bad  that 
he  was  forced  to  take  Washington's  advice  and  change 
the  baggage  from  wagons  to  pack  horses. 

Gradually,  as  time  went  on,  these  rough  paths  were 
beaten  down  into  smoother  thoroughfares.  The  same 
causes  that  led  to  the  development  of  the  North  were 
working  also  at  the  South.  Along  the  Potomac,  as  in 
New  York  and  in  Pennsylvania,  the  stream  of  colonial 
life  flowed  westward.  First  the  pioneers  settled  the  low 
lands  around  Chesapeake  bay  and  along  the  deep  rivers; 
then  as  their  strength  and  courage  reached  beyond  the 
mountains  they  found  the  forests  and  fertile  soil  behind 
the  Blue  Ridge.  Farther  within  the  rugged  highlands 
they  built  Fort  Cumberland  and  sent  out  discoverers  and 
armies  to  the  Ohio  river.  When  the  woods  were  cleared 
and  towns  and  states  grew  up  on  the  Ohio,  there  was 
frequent  occasion  to  cross  the  mountains  for  trade,  for 
travel,  and  to  reach  the  seat  of  government,  which  in 
1 80 1  was  moved  to  Washington  on  the  Potomac. 

These  glimpses  of  colonial  journeys  will  help  us  to 
understand  why  the  National  Road  came  to  be  built. 
About  one  hundred  years  ago  the  government  began  to 


92  FROM   TRAIL  TO   RAILWAY 

take  a  great  interest  in  opening  roads,  especially  across 
the  Appalachian  mountains,  to  Ohio,  Kentucky,  and  other 
parts  of  the  Mississippi  valley.  Washington,  who  died  in 
1 799,  had  said  much  about  this  work,  for  he  not  only  wanted 
western  trade  to  come  to  Virginia  instead  of  going  to  New 
Orleans,  but  he  also  felt  that  so  long  as  the  mountains  kept 
the  East  and  the  West  apart  we  should  never  have  one 
common  country,  held  together  by  friendly  feelings. 


FIG.  35.  OLD  ROAD  HOUSE,  BROWNSVILLE,  PENNSYLVANIA 

The  people  of  Baltimore,  like  those  of  New  York  and 
Philadelphia,  were  eager  to  have  the  best  road  to  the 
West,  that  their  business  might  be  benefited.  Not  far 
from  Baltimore  is  an  old  place  called  Joppa,  and  several 
roads  are  still  known  as  "  Joppa  roads."  The  town  is 
older  than  Baltimore  and  was  once  the  chief  trading 
town  in  the  northern  part  of  Maryland  ;  but  Baltimore 
was  well  situated  on  an  arm  of  the  great  bay,  and  by 
this  time  had  gone  far  ahead  of  its  old  rival. 


THE   NATIONAL   ROAD  93 

A  number  of  good  roads  had  been  built  in  Maryland, 
among  them  a  famous  one  leading  out  westward  to  Fred 
erick.  This  was  in  the  direction  of  Hagerstown,  and  still 
farther  west  was  Cumberland.  The  United  States  gov 
ernment  decided  to  build  a  great  road  to  Ohio,  beginning 
at  Cumberland.  To  get  the  benefit  of  this,  the  men  of 
Baltimore  went  to  work  to  push  the  Frederick  pike  west 
ward  to  the  beginning  of  the  National  Road. 

So  it  came  about  in  1 8 1 1  that  the  first  contracts  were 
let  for  building  parts  of  the  National  Road.  We  remem 
ber  that  the  Erie  canal  was  not  started  until  six  years 
later.  The  act  of  Congress  which  ordered  the  making  of 
the  road  provided  that  a  strip  four  rods  wide  should  be 
cleared  of  trees,  that  it  should  be  built  up  in  the  middle 
with  broken  stone,  gravel,  or  other  material  good  for 
roads,  and  that  all  steep  slopes  should  be  avoided.  The 
road  was  opened  to  the  public  in  1 8 1 8,  one  year  after  the 
Erie  canal  was  begun.  The  original  plan  was  to  make  it 
seven  hundred  miles  long,  reaching  from  Cumberland  to 
the  Mississippi  river,  but  it  was  never  carried  out. 

The  Maryland  roads,  as  we  have  seen,  ran  west  from 
Baltimore  and  Washington  to  Frederick,  east  of  the  Blue 
Ridge  ;  to  Hagerstown,  in  the  Great  Valley ;  and  to  Cum 
berland,  in  the  mountains.  Cumberland  is  a  stirring 
town  of  about  twenty  thousand  people,  and  with  its 
great  business  in  coal,  iron,  and  railroads  it  seems  like 
a  larger  city.  Thence  the  National  Road  runs  through 
the  gap  in  Wills  mountain  (Fig.  36)  to  Frostburg,  a  dozen 
miles  west  and  fifteen  hundred  feet  higher.  The  road 
soon  bears  northward  into  Pennsylvania  and  crosses 
the  Monongahela  river  at  Brownsville,  about  forty  miles 


94  FROM   TRAIL  TO    RAILWAY 

south  of  Pittsburg.  Coal  is  mined  here,  and  boats  were 
running  in  those  early  days,  as  coal  barges  and  steam 
boats  run  to-day,  down  to  the  great  iron  city. 

From  Brownsville  the  pike  leads  over  the  hills  and 
comes  down  to  the  Ohio  river  at  Wheeling,  West  Virginia. 
It  then  passes  on  through  Ohio,  touching  Columbus,  the 
capital,  on  the  way  to  Indiana  and  the  Mississippi. 

We  sometimes  admire  the  cars  marked  with  the  sign 
of  the  United  States  post  office,  which  we  see  drawn 
by  a  swift  locomotive  at  a  speed  of  sixty  miles  an  hour ; 
but  when  the  government  put  its  mail  coaches  oh  the 
National  Road  from  Washington  to  Wheeling,  no  doubt 
they  seemed  quite  as  wonderful  to  the  people  of  that 
time.  And  it  was  only  twenty-five  years  since  the  people 
of  Utica  had  thought  it  so  remarkable  that  six  letters 
had  come  to  them  in  one  mail !  Soon  passenger  coaches 
were  rushing  along  at  ten  miles  an  hour,  and  sometimes 
even  faster.  There  were  canvas-covered  freight  wagons, 
each  of  which  carried  ten  tons,  had  rear  wheels  ten  feet 
high,  and  was  drawn  by  twelve  horses.  In  those  days 
life  was  full  of  stirring  interest  on  the  National  Road. 

There  were  rates  of  toll  for  all  sorts  of  animals  and 
wagons.  The  toll  was  higher  for  hogs  than  for  sheep, 
and  more  was  charged  for  cattle  than  for  hogs.  If  the 
wagons  had  very  wide  tires,  no  toll  was  demanded. 
Drivers  sometimes  lied  about  the  number  of  people  in 
their  stages,  so  as  to  pay  less  toll.  The  stages  were  not 
owned  by  the  drivers  but  by  companies,  which  bid  for 
travelers  and  freight,  as  railways  do  now.  There  were 
penalties  for  injuring  milestones  or  defacing  bridges, 
showing  that  some  people  then  were  like  some  people 


95 


96  FROM   TRAIL  TO    RAILWAY 

now.  The  companies  had  interesting  names.  There  were 
the  "Good  Intent,"  "Ohio  National  Stage  Lines,"  the 
"Pilot,"  "Pioneer,"  "June  Bug,"  and  "Defiance."  Not 
one  of  them  cared  for  mud  or  dust,  for  horses  or  men, 
if  only  it  could  be  the  first  to  reach  its  destination. 


FIG.  37.    BRIDGE  AND  MONUMENT,  NATIONAL  ROAD,  NEAR 
WHEELING,  WEST  VIRGINIA 

There  must  have  been  dust  enough,  for  twenty  coaches 
with  their  many  horses  sometimes  followed  one  another 
in  a  close  line. 

Henry  Clay  was  one  of  the  chief  advocates  of  this 
road,  and  a  monument  built  in  his  honor  may  be  seen 
near  the  bridge,  shown  in  Fig.  37.  It  is  a  few  miles  east 
of  Wheeling.  At  Brownsville  a  small  stream  called  Dun- 
lap's  creek  flows  into  the  Monongahela  from  the  east. 
Over  it  is  an  iron  bridge  on  the  line  of  the  National 
Road.  According  to  a  story  told  in  Brownsville,  Henry 
Clay  was  once  overturned  as  he  was  riding  through 
the  creek  before  the  bridge  was  built.  As  he  gathered 


THE    NATIONAL   ROAD  97 

himself  up  he  was  heard  to  say,  "Clay  and  mud  shall 
not  be  mixed  here  again."  The  story  goes  that  he  went 
on  immediately  to  Washington  and  got  an  order  for  the 
building  of  the  bridge. 

Whether  this  be  true  or  not,  it  is  certain  that  he  and 
many  other  statesmen  traveled  over  the  National  Road. 
They  could  not  have  private  cars,  nor  did  they  go  in 
drawing-room  coaches,  as  we  can  if  we  choose.  Anybody 
might  chance  to  sit  beside  these  men  of  national  fame, 
as  day  after  day  they  rode  through  the  valleys  and  over 
the  mountains,  stopping  at  the  wayside  hotels  for  food 
and  rest. 

Some  of  the  old  hotels,  tollhouses,  and  bridges,  as  they 
look  to-day,  are  shown  in  the  illustrations  in  this  chapter. 
The  road  itself  was  long  ago  given  up  to  the  different 
states  and  counties  through  which  it  runs,  but  it  still 
tells  to  the  traveler  who  goes  over  it  many  a  story  of  the 
life  of  a  hundred  years  ago. 


CHAPTER  IX 

THE  BALTIMORE  AND  OHIO  RAILROAD 

Even  after  the  Erie  canal  was  built  and  long  lines  of 
boats  were  carrying  the  grain  and  other  products  of  the 
West  to  New  York,  the  men  of  Virginia  and  Maryland 
did  not  give  up  the  notion  of  still  making  the  trade  of 
the  western  country  come  their  way.  They  planned  the 
Chesapeake  and  Ohio  canal,  to  reach  the  Ohio  river,  and 
thought  that  other  canals  across  the  state  of  Ohio  would 
let  them  into  lake  Erie.  By  the  Ohio  river  they  would 
connect  with  New  Orleans  and  the  upper  Mississippi 
river,  and  through  lake  Erie  they  could  reach  the  towns 
and  farms  that  border  lake  Huron,  lake  Michigan,  and 
lake  Superior. 

A  canal  along  the  Potomac  valley  had  been  talked  of 
several  years  before  the  Revolution,  when  Richard  Henry 
Lee  laid  a  plan  for  it  before  the  Assembly  of  Virginia. 
Doubtless  others  thought  of  it  too,  as  of  the  Erie  canal, 
long  before  it  was  made.  At  the  end  of  the  War  of 
the  Revolution  Washington  made  a  long  journey  into  the 
wild  woods  of  New  York.  He  went  to  the  source  of  the 
Susquehanna  at  Otsego  lake,  visited  the  portage  b.etween 
the  Mohawk  and  Wood  creek,  and  saw  for  himself  that 
New  York  had  a  great  chance  for  navigation  and  trade. 
But  he  had  a  natural  love  for  his  own  Virginia,  and  he 

98 


THE   BALTIMORE  AND    OHIO    RAILROAD        99 

did  not  intend  to  let  New  York  go  ahead  of  his  native 
state.  His  journeys  across  the  mountains  as  a  surveyor 
and  as  a  soldier  gave  him  a  knowledge  of  the  Ohio 
country,  and  as  he  had  himself  taken  up  much  good  land 
there,  he  wished  to  have  an  easy  way,  by  land  or  water, 
from  the  sea  to  the  rich  Ohio  valley.  So  he  thought 
much  about  a  canal  to  run  by  the  side  of  the  Potomac, 
and  he  joined  with  others  who  felt  as  he  did  to  form  the 


Fir,.  38.   MOUNT  ROYAL  STATION,  BALTIMORE  AND  OHIO  RAIL 
ROAD,  BALTIMORE 

Potomac  Company.  They  started  a  canal,  but  they  found 
so  much  in  the  way  that  they  were  not  able  to  go  far 
with  it. 

The  plan  for  a  canal  came  up  again  twenty  years  after 
Washington  died,  and  in  1823  a  charter  was  given  for 
building  the  Chesapeake  and  Ohio  canal.  New  York  had 
then  been  six  years  at  work  on  the  Erie  canal  and  would 
finish  it  in  two  years  more.  If  the  Virginia  and  Mary 
land  people  had  known  that  most  of  them  would  be  dead 


IOO 


FROM   TRAIL  TO   RAILWAY 


before  their  canal  was  half  done,  and  that  it  would  never 
be  really  finished,  they  would  not  have  undertaken  it. 

They  did  not  begin  the  work  until  five  years  later,  in 
1828.  Then  a  great  crowd  came  together  at  George 
town,  now  a  part  of  Washington,  on  the  Potomac,  to  see 
the  first  earth  thrown  out.  President  John  Ouincy 


FIG.  39.  CHESAPEAKE  AND  OHIO  CANAL,  CUMBERLAND 

Adams  made  the  principal  speech  and  then  took  a  spade 
to  begin  the  digging.  The  spade  hit  a  root  and  would 
not  go  into  the  soil.  The  President  set  down  his  foot 
more  firmly,  but  still  the  spade  would  not  move.  At 
last,  determined  to  succeed,  he  pulled  off  his  coat  for 
the  job.  The  crowd  liked  this  and  cheered  loudly,  while 
Mr.  Adams  accomplished  what  he  had  set  out  to  do. 


THE   BALTIMORE  AND    OHIO    RAILROAD      IOI 

On  this  very  day  something  else  was  going  on  at 
Baltimore,  forty  miles  away.  Baltimore  was  not  on  the 
Potomac,  but  her  people  did  not  propose  to  be  left  out  of 
the  western  trade  on  that  account.  After  much  disput 
ing  a  charter  had  been  granted  for  building  what  became 
one  of  the  most  famous,  as  it  is  one  of  the  oldest,  Amer 
ican  railways,  —  the  Baltimore  and  Ohio.  Hence  Balti 
more  had  a  celebration  of  her  own  on  this  same  Fourth 
of  July,  1828. 

They  did  not  have  the  President  of  the  United  States 
to  help  them,  but  they  fared  very  well.  They  had  great 
faith  in  what  they  were  doing,  and  doubtless  would  have 
shouted  even  louder  had  they  known  what  a  great  rail 
road  they  were  starting  and  what  a  hard  time  the  canal 
people  would  have. 

There  was  only  one  man  remaining  of  all  the  patriots 
who  had  signed  the  Declaration  of  Independence  almost 
fifty  years  before.  This  was  Charles  Carroll  of  Carroll- 
ton,  and  he  was  the  guest  of  Baltimore  on  that  day.  A 
prayer  was  offered,  the  Declaration  was  read,  and  after  an 
officer  of  the  railway  company  had  spoken  Mr.  Carroll 
removed  the  first  earth.  As  if  nature  would  be  kind  to 
an  old  man,  no  root  made  his  work  hard ;  and  the  super 
stitious  may  say  that  the  President's  toilsome  digging 
over  in  Georgetown  was  a  bad  omen  for  that  enterprise. 
It  is  easier  to  look  back  than  to  see  into  the  future. 

Both  canal  and  railway  went  on  building,  but  as  they 
needed  nearly  the  same  route  in  some  places,  they  did 
not  get  on  well  together.  The  canal  was  located  in  the 
state  of  Maryland,  along  the  north  bank  of  the  Potomac. 
This  was  done  in  some  measure  because  a  large  part  of 


IO2  FROM    TRAIL   TO    RAILWAY 

the  water  which  would  be  needed  for  the  canal  came 
down  from  the  uplands  on  the  north  side.  It  took  twenty- 
three  years  to  dig  the  trench  as  far  as  Cumberland,  so 
that  it  was  1851  before  boats  could  run  between  Cumber 
land  and  tide  water.  The  original  plan  of  carrying  the 
canal  beyond  Cumberland  and  across  the  mountains  was 
never  carried  out. 

Just  below  the  point  where  Wills  creek  enters  the 
Potomac  there  is  a  dam,  and  from  the  pond  so  made  the 
water  is  taken  into  the  upper  end  of  the  canal.  Much 
traffic  has  passed  up  and  down  the  canal,  but,  on  the 
whole,  it  has  not  paid  for  the  cost  of  building  and  repair 
ing.  Sometimes  it  has  been  out  of  use,  and  a  few  months 
ago  the  state  of  Maryland  sold  it  for  a  small  sum  to 
the  Wabash  Railway  Company. 

The  North  American  Review  has  been  published  for 
a  long  time.  At  least  seventy-five  years  ago  this  maga 
zine  printed  two  articles  on  the  Baltimore  and  Ohio  Rail 
road.  By  reading  them  we  can  see  how  the  intelligent 
people  of  that  time  felt  about  building  it. 

In  favor  of  the  proposed  railroad  they  said,  first,  that 
it  would  not  be  closed  by  ice  for  several  months  each 
year,  as  the  Erie  canal  and  the  rivers  were.  Secondly, 
they  reminded  the  public  that  Baltimore  is  two  hundred 
miles  nearer  the  Ohio  navigation  than  New  York  is,  and 
one  hundred  miles  nearer  than  Philadelphia.  Thirdly, 
they  argued  that  New  Orleans  was  a  long  way  off,  and 
its  climate  hot  and  unhealthful.  Provisions  sent  by  that 
route  would  be  likely  to  spoil,  and  the  traders  taking  the 
goods  down  the  river  might  fall  sick.  Further,  the  rivers 
in  a  dry  summer  would  be  too  low  for  navigation. 


FIG.  40.  HIGHEST  POINT  ON  BALTIMORE  AND  OHIO  RAILROAD, 

AT  SAND  PATCH,  PENNSYLVANIA 

103 


104  FROM    TRAIL  TO    RAILWAY 

Nor  did  Baltimore  people  think  that  the  Erie  canal 
could  get  much  trade  except  from  regions  close  to  lake 
Erie,  and  they  had  noticed  that  lands  not  far  from  the 
canal  still  sent  a  good  deal  of  produce  down  the  Susque- 
hanna  river  to  Baltimore.  There  was  no  port  south  of 
them  that  was  so  good  as  theirs  ;  in  short,  they  showed 
a  very  proper  pride  in  their  own  home  and  a  conviction 
that  Baltimore  was  as  good  as  any  other  American  city, 
if  not,  perhaps,  a  little  better. 

They  said  also  that  the  lime  used  for  building  in  the 
city  of  Washington  was  brought  all  the  way  from  Rhode 
Island,  while  there  was  a  great  abundance  of  good  lime 
stone  in  their  own  mountains,  although  it  could  not  be 
carried  by  wagons.  There  was  coal  also,  in  seams  so 
thick  and  wide  that  it  could  never  be  used  up,  but  there 
was  no  way  of  getting  it  down  to  the  sea  where  it  would 
run  factories,  smelt  iron,  and  propel  the  new  steamships 
that  so  soon  would  make  the  ocean  a  well-traveled  high 
way.  Slate  also  was  to  be  had,  and  marble,  and  gypsum, 
and  timber,  but  these  could  not  be  brought  to  the  towns 
where  they  might  be  used.  There  was,  moreover,  much 
iron  ore  all  along  the  proposed  route,  and  we  all  know 
that  iron  is  the  most  important  of  the  metals. 

It  had  long  before  been  learned  that  there  were  many 
fish  in  Chesapeake  bay,  and  that  New  England  was  not 
to  have  the  fishing  business  all  to  herself.  Better  even 
than  this,  there  were  then,  as  there  are  now,  places  under 
the  shallow  waters  where  countless  oysters  lived  and  mul 
tiplied.  It  was  said,  even  in  1827,  that  if  there  could  be 
a  railroad  to  carry  things  quickly,  oysters  might  be  sent 
to  people  living  far  from  the  sea. 


THE   BALTIMORE  AND   OHIO   RAILROAD      105 

Baltimore's  notion  of  swift  carrying  was  much  like 
that  of  the  Erie  canal  packet  owners.  Trains  could  go 
four  miles  an  hour,  and  thus  goods  might  be  sent  from 
Baltimore  to'  the  Ohio  river  in  sixty-two  and  one-half 
hours.  Some  hopeful  people  thought  that  the  speed 
might  even  be  raised  to  eight  miles  an  hour.  When 
cars  run  at  that  rate  in  these  days  we  begin  to  talk 
about  getting  out  and  pushing  the  engine. 

The  builders  of  the  railroad  had  what  seem  to  us  curi 
ous  ideas  of  laying  a  foundation  for  the  track.  They  dug 
a  trench  in  some  places,  putting  into  it  broken  stone, 
and  on  this  they  laid  long  slabs  of  stone,  or  "  stone  rails." 
On  these,  in  their  turn,  the  iron  rails  were  riveted  down. 
Until  car  springs  were  invented  the  jolting  must  have 
been  like  that  of  a  farm  wagon. 

Even  when  the  track  was  finished  no  decision  had 
been  made  as  to  how  the  cars  were  to  be  moved.  Mr. 
Hulbert,  in  one  of  his  stories  of  historic  highways,  tells 
of  several  experiments  which  were  made.  Some  one  in 
vented  a  locomotive  in  which  a  horse  was  to  tread  an 
endless  belt  and  thus  make  the  machine  go,  carrying 
with  it  the  horse  and  dragging  the  cars.  On  one  trip, 
when  several  newspaper  men  were  present  to  report 
the  trial,  the  train  ran  into  a  cow  and  they  were  all 
tipped  out  and  tumbled  down  a  bank.  The  method  did 
not  have  much  praise  in  the  papers.  Sails  were  also 
tried,  and  one  car  which  was  thus  moved  by  wind  was 
called  sEolus.  This  car,  with  its  mast  and  other  ship- 
like  rigging,  made  much  talk,  but  that  was  all.  And  no 
one  could  quite  see  how  it  would  ever  be  possible  to  draw 
a  car  on  a  curved  track.  This  meant  much,  for  it  was 


io6 


FROM   TRAIL   TO    RAILWAY 


out  of  the  question  to  build  a  railway  through  the  moun 
tains  without  many  curves,  and  some  of  them  rather 
short  ones.  But  there  were  those  who  thought  that  if  a 
curved  road  were  possible,  it  would  be  a  good  thing 
because  the  engineer  could  occasionally  look  back  along 
the  line  and  see  how  his  train  was  coming  on. 


FIG.  41.   LOOKING  DOWN  THE  POTOMAC  FROM  HARPERS  FERRY 

Maryland  on  the  left;  West  Virginia  on  right  and  in  foreground;  Virginia  in 
the  distance;  Baltimore  and  Ohio  Railroad  and  Chesapeake  and  Ohio  canal 
at  the  left;  Shenandoah  river  enters  under  bridge  on  the  right 

But  steam  was  to  win  the  day.  Mr.  Peter  Cooper  had 
a  locomotive,  called  Tom  Tliumb,  built  in  1829,  and  an 
old  picture  shows  an  exciting  race  between  this  little 
engine  and  a  horse  car.  The  steam  car  won  the  race, 
and  it  is  now  to  be  seen  whether  or  not  electricity  will 
drive  steam  out  of  business  on  the  railways. 


THK    BALTIMORE  AM)    OHIO    RAILROAD      107 

By  1833  the  road  was  laid  as  far  as  Harpers  Ferry,  a 
place  made  lively  by  armies  and  guns  in  the  Civil  War. 
It  is  a  rugged  old  town,  built  near  the  spot  where  the 
Shenandoah  joins  the  Potomac,  and  both  together  have 
cut  a  fine  gorge  through  the  Blue  Ridge.  To-day  as  one 
stands  in  the  upper  part  of  the  village  and  looks  down 
through  the  great  gorge,  he  sees  the  bridge  and  tracks 
and  trains  of  the  Baltimore  and  Ohio,  and  the  channel 
of  the  Chesapeake  and  Ohio  canal  (Fig.  41).  The  rail 
way  outstripped  the  canal,  for  the  road  was  finished  to 
Cumberland  in  1842,  nine  years  before  canal  boats 
floated  into  that  place  ;  and  in  1853  the  first  train  rolled 
into  Wheeling,  on  the  Ohio  river. 

Another  part  of  the  road  now  runs  farther  north  to 
Pittsburg  and  leads  on  to  Chicago,  while  yet  another 
passes  south  to  Cincinnati  and  St.  Louis.  Eastward  the 
main  line  runs  to  Philadelphia  and  stops  at  the  White 
hall  terminal  in  New  York  City.  These  long  lines,  with 
many  spurs  and  side  lines,  make  up  the  Baltimore  and 
Ohio  Railway  system,  which,  like  the  Pennsylvania  and 
the  New  York  Central,  joins  the  seaports  of  the  Atlan 
tic  coast  with  the  fields  and  cities  of  the  Mississippi,  and 
carries  in  either  direction  the  rich  mineral  products  of 
the  intervening  mountains. 

Like  her  neighbors  on  the  Atlantic,  Baltimore  stretches 
out  her  hands  to  sea  and  land.  The  city  was  begun  in 
1730,  at  which  time  a  Mr.  Carroll  sold  the  land  for  it 
at  forty  shillings  an  acre.  WThen  Washington  first  went 
to  the  Ohio  there  were  only  twenty-five  houses  in  Balti 
more,  but  in  1770  there  were  twenty  thousand  people, 
and  the  new  city  was  drawing  trade  from  Philadelphia. 


108  FROM    TRAIL  TO   RAILWAY 

In  1826,  when  the  Erie  canal  was  building,  Baltimore 
had  become  a  city  of  sixty  thousand  inhabitants.  Now 
it  has  more  than  half  a  million  people,  and  is  the  sixth 
American  city.  In  foreign  trade,  however,  it  stands 
third,  and  its  docks  are  busy  places.  The  Hamburg- 
American,  the  North-German  Lloyd,  and  the  Red  Star 
lines  all  send  regular  steamers  between  Baltimore  and 
Europe,  and  hundreds  of  others  sail  to  ports  on  our  own 


FIG.  42.  COKE  OVENS  AT  MEYERSDALK,  PENNSYLVANIA 

coast,  to  the  West  Indies,  and  to  South  America.  Balti 
more  builds  ships  as  well  as  sails  them,  to  carry  the 
corn,  flour,  and  meat  of  the  prairies  and  the  great  plains 
to  foreign  lands,  and  to  bring  back  their  products  in 
exchange.  Where  there  are  railways  and  ships  there 
are  always  merchants  and  factories.  Out  of  the  gains 
of  trade  a  Baltimore  merchant  built  one  of  the  most 
famous  of  our  schools,  the  Johns  Hopkins  University. 

There    has    been    no    more   important   factor  in   the 
development  of  the  United  States  than  is  found  in  the 


THE   BALTIMORE  AND   OHIO   RAILROAD      icx) 

great  railway  systems,  which,  by  linking  all  sections 
together,  give  unity  and  strength  to  the  whole  fabric  of 
our  government.  Washington's  dreams  of  his  country's 
future  are  already  overtopped  by  her  actual  achievements, 
and  the  most  hopeful  among  those  who  first  saw  the 
advantages  of  steam  engines  could  hardly  have  looked 
forward  to  the  swift  transportation  of  to-day. 

In  the  year  1901  an  American  ship  and  American  rail 
way  trains  ran  a  great  race  to  London  over  land  and  sea. 
The  start  was  from  Australia  and  the  distance  was  more 
than  thirteen  thousand  miles.  The  race  was  not  against 
other  ships  and  other  trains,  but  against  time.  The  mail 
from  Sydney  in  New  South  Wales  usually  went  by  the 
Red  sea  and  the  Suez  canal,  a  route  which  is  a  thou 
sand  miles  shorter  than  is  the  Pacific  route,  and  which 
took  thirty-five  days  and  a  few  hours.  It  happened  on 
August  1 3,  in  the  morning,  that  three  hundred  and  sixty- 
seven  sacks  of  important  mail  for  London  were  piled 
on  the  dock,  beside  which  lay  a  new  American  ship, 
the  Ventura.  Because  no  good  British  ship  was  at  hand 
that  morning,  the  post-office  authorities  thought  that 
they  would  let  the  vessel  with  the  Stars  and  Stripes 
carry  the  mail.  She  did  carry  it,  and  on  the  evening  of 
September  2  she  laid  down  the  bags  on  the  pier  at 
San  Francisco. 

The  American  railroads  tried  their  hand  at  carrying 
the  British  mail.  The  Southern  Pacific  took  it  swiftly 
across  to  Ogden,  in  Utah.  The  Union  Pacific  seized  it, 
two  hours  late,  and  said  that  the  time  should  be  made 
up.  The  train  raced  a  thousand  miles  to  Omaha  and 
made  up  some  of  the  time  but  not  all.  Then  it  was 


I  10 


FROM    TRAIL   TO    RAILWAY 


off  for  Chicago,  where  the  Lake  Shore  road  had  a 
"special"  ready  to  overtake  the  Fast  Mail.  It  ran  two 
hundred  and  forty-four  miles  in  two  hundred  and  sixty- 
five  and  a  half  minutes,  and  did  overtake  it.  Then  came 


FIG.  43.  THE  OBSERVATION  END,  BALTIMORE  AND  OHIO  RAILROAD 

Buffalo,  New  York,  Queenstown,  and  London.  The  car 
riers  in  that  great  city  started  out  with  the  mail  early  in 
the  morning  of  September  14.  If  the  bags  had  come  by 
the  shorter  route  under  the  British  flag,  they  would  not 
have  reached  London  until  September  16.  This  is  what 
great  railways  and  great  ships  do  in  our  time,  —  they 
make  neighbors  of  all  men. 


OF  THE 

UNIVERSITY 


CHAPTER  X 
CITIES  OF  THE  OHIO  VALLEY 

If  we  look  at  a  map,  we  shall  see  that  the  Allegheny 
river  flows  southward  from  New  York  into  western 
Pennsylvania.  The  Monongahela  river,  rising  among 
the  rough  highlands  of  West  Virginia,  sends  its  waters 
toward  the  north,  and  the  two  great  streams  join  to 
form  the  Ohio,  which  flows  on  far  to  the  southwest.  All 
together  they  are  like  wide-spreading  branches  of  an 
apple  tree  uniting  with  the  gnarled  old  trunk. 

In  the  great  crotch  of  the  tree  Pittsburg  is  snugly 
placed.  A  narrow  point  of  flat  land  lies  between  the 
rivers  just  before  they  come  together  to  make  the  Ohio, 
and  back  of  this  point,  to  the  east,  rise  steep  hills. 
Across  the  Allegheny  and  across  the  Monongahela  the 
banks  rise  sharply  for  several  hundred  feet,  and  there  too, 
wherever  the  slope  is  not  too  steep  for  houses  to  stand, 
tens  of  thousands  of  busy  people  have  their  homes. 

The  rivers  are  crossed  by  many  bridges  and  are  full 
of  boats.  Up  and  down  for  miles  their  banks  are  smoky 
and  noisy  with  furnaces,  and  at  night  the  iron  mills 
light  up  the  valley  with  wonderful  torches  of  flame  leap 
ing  into  the  black  sky.  If  the  great  towns  clustered 
within  an  hour's  ride  were  counted  in,  Pittsburg  would 
now  have  a  million  people.  Only  a  hundred  years  ago 


112  FROM   TRAIL   TO    RAILWAY 

she  was,  like  many  other  cities  in  the  New  World,  a  hum 
ble  village  between  two  rivers.  As  early  as  1730  white 
men  journeyed  here  to  trade  with  the  Indians,  who  could 
come  from  any  part  of  the  western  country  in  their 
canoes.  Washington  stood  here  November  24,  1753, 


FIG.  44.  OLD  BLOCKHOUSE,  PITTSBIRG 

and  in  his  description  of  the  place  wrote,  "  I  think  it 
extremely  well  situated  for  a  fort,  as  it  has  absolute 
command  of  both  rivers."  Men  were  to  need  forts  for  a 
long  time  in  that  country,  and  the  one  which  was  soon 
built  on  this  site  had  a  stirring  history.  In  1758  it  was 
recaptured  from  the  French  and  named  for  England's 


CITIES    OF   THE    OHIO  VALLEY  113 

prime  minister,  Pitt.  Hence  we  have  Pittsburgh,  which 
is  the  old  spelling,  but  it  is  now  common  to  drop  the  //, 
and  write  it  Pittsburg. 

The  old  blockhouse  of  brick,  which  is  still  standing, 
was  built  in  1764.  Washington  came  back  to  the  spot 
in  1770,  and  found  here  about  twenty  houses,  used  by 
men  who  were  trading  with  the  Indians.  Arthur  Lee, 
in  1784,  thought  that  the  place  would  "never  be  very 
considerable,"  but  he  was  not  a  good  prophet.  In  1816 
it  had  become  a  city  and  has  been  steadily  gaining  in 
importance  since  that  time.  Not  much  more  than  fifty 
years  later  an  historian  of  Pittsburg  said  that  if  Mr.  Lee 
could  then  come  back,  he  would  find  a  city  bigger  than 
the  six  largest  cities  and  towns  in  the  Old  Dominion. 

The  secret  of  Pittsburgh  success  is  in  its  location. 
Many  years  ago  it  was  called  "the  gate  of  the  West," 
and  through  it  has  gone  much  of  the  trade  between  the 
East  and  the  lands  beyond  the  mountains.  Even  from 
New  York  the  pioneers  came  by  land  and  water  to  the 
head  of  the  Ohio,  an  undertaking  by  no  means  easy  in 
those  days.  A  prominent  man  in  Pittsburg  once  con 
tracted  with  the  government  to  send  provisions  to  Os- 
wego,  and  as  he  wished  to  make  the  long  journey  as 
profitable  as  he  could,  he  packed  the  provisions  in  strong 
barrels  that  would  hold  salt.  When  these  were  emptied 
they  were  filled  for  the  return  trip  with  Onondaga  salt 
and  carried  by  lake  Ontario  to  the  Niagara  river  below 
the  falls.  They  were  then  taken  around  the  falls  and 
across  the  lake  to  Erie,  up  French  creek,  over  the 
portage,  and  at  length  by  boat  to  Pittsburg.  It  was  a 
roundabout  way,  but  the  enterprising  dealer  sold  salt  in 


114  FROM   TRAIL  TO   RAILWAY 

Pittsburg  for  half  the  price  charged  by  the  packers  who 
brought  it  by  rough  mountain  roads  from  the  East. 

Improvements  in  methods  of  transportation  caused  an 
increase  in  business  activity.  By  the  Pittsburg  pike,  by 
the  canal  with  its  Portage  Railway,  and  finally  by  the 
Pennsylvania  Railroad,  trade  was  coming  from  Philadel 
phia.  Not  less  promptly  did  the  men  of  Baltimore  and 
the  Virginians  reach  Pittsburg  by  the  trail,  the  National 
Road,  and  the  Baltimore  and  Ohio  Railroad.  Because 
Pittsburg  stood  at  the  head  of  the  Ohio  it  was  a  door  to 
the  whole  Mississippi  valley,  and  men  and  goods  quickly 
found  their  way  to  it.  Once  there  a  boat  would  take 
them  over  thousands  of  miles  of  river,  or  to  New  Orleans 
and  the  open  sea. 

Henry  Clay  used  to  tell  in  Congress  a  good  story 
about  Pittsburg.  He  said  that  a  ship  built  at  Pittsburg 
sailed  down  the  river,  through  the  gulf,  across  the  Atlan 
tic,  into  the  Mediterranean,  and  anchored  at  Leghorn. 
The  captain  handed  his  papers  to  the  officer  of  the  cus 
tomhouse,  who  did  not  credit  them.  "Sir,"  said  he, 
"  your  papers  are  forged  ;  there  is  no  such  port  as  Pitts 
burg  in  the  world  ;  your  vessel  must  be  confiscated." 
Though  the  captain  was  frightened,  he  pulled  out  a  map 
and  taught  the  Italian  official  a  lesson  in  geography,  mak 
ing  him  understand  at  last  that  one  could  sail  a  thousand 
miles  up  the  Mississippi  and  another  thousand  up  the 
Ohio,  and  that  there  was  such  a  port  as  Pittsburg. 

The  first  boats  on  the  Ohio  river  were  the  light  bark 
canoes  of  the  red  men.  These  could  sail  in  almost  any 
water,  but  they  were  easily  broken  and  could  carry  only 
light  loads.  When  white  men  began  to  throng  the  river 


Il6  FROM   TRAIL  TO   RAILWAY 

and  wanted  to  carry  their  families,  household  furniture, 
tools,  grain,  and  all  the  produce  of  the  land,  they  needed 
something  larger  and  stronger.  At  first  they  built 
barges,  which  were  little  more  than  great  boxes  made 
water-tight.  These  they  loaded  and  steered  down  the 
stream  as  best  they  could.  They  did  not  expect  to  bring 
them  back,  for  such  boats  could  not  be  pushed  against 
the  current.  Hence  the  barge  builders  at  Pittsburg 
always  had  work,  for  a  new  one  had  to  be  provided  for 
each  fresh  cargo. 

Later  men  began  to  make  keel  boats,  in  which  they 
could  not  only  go  downstream  but  could  also,  by  poling, 
make  a  return  voyage.  These  boats  were  about  fifty 
feet  long  and  could  carry  twenty  tons  or  more.  Along 
the  sides  were  "running  boards,"  where  the  men  went 
up  and  down  with  their  setting  poles  to  drive  the  boat 
against  the  current.  The  space  between  the  running 
boards  was  covered  over  to  form  a  kind  of  cabin.  It 
was  not  an  easy  task  to  pole  one  of  these  boats  up  a 
rapid,  and  the  life  on  the  river  was  a  life  of  toil. 

During  the  last  twenty  years  before  1800,  or  while 
Washington  was  President,  a  wealthy  merchant  of  Phila 
delphia  took  up  traffic  on  the  Ohio.  He  sent  dry  goods 
and  other  merchandise  overland  to  Pittsburg,  thence 
down  the  Ohio  in  a  barge,  and  up  the  Mississippi  to 
Kaskaskia  in  Illinois,  which  was  at  that  time  an  impor 
tant  town.  Here  the  cargo  was  exchanged  for  skins  of 
bear,  deer,  buffalo,  and  other  animals,  to  be  taken  up 
the  Ohio  and  sent  from  Pittsburg  to  Philadelphia. 

It  took  time  to  trade  in  this  way.  A  summer  was 
needed  to  go  down  to  New  Orleans  and  back  again  with 


CITIES    OF    THE   OHIO  VALLEY  117 

a  keel  boat  or  a  barge.  When  a  boat  came  up  "with  furs 
from  St.  Louis  ;  cotton  from  Natchez  ;  hemp,  tobacco, 
and  saltpeter  from  Maysville;  or  sugar  and  cotton  from 
New  Orleans  and  Natchez,  it  was  a  wonder  to  the  many, 
and  drew  vast  crowds  to  see  and  rejoice  over  it." 

One  of  the  river  men,  Captain  Shreve,  once  took  his 
boat  from  New  Orleans  up  to  Louisville  in  twenty-five 
days.  The  people  celebrated  this  remarkable  achieve 
ment  and  gave  the  captain  a  public  dinner.  No  doubt 
they  made  as  much  ado  as  we  should  now  make  if  a  ship 
should  go  from  New  York  to  Liverpool  in  three  days. 
They  were  quite  right  to  make  a  feast  in  honor  of  the 
occasion,  for  the  time  commonly  allowed  for  the  journey 
had  been  three  months. 

The  flatboat,  which  for  years  was  used  in  river  traffic, 
was  about  forty  feet  long,  twelve  feet  wide,  and  eight 
feet  deep.  It  had  a  flat  bottom  and  was  handled  by 
means  of  three  oars  on  each  side.  Two  of  these  were 
called  sweeps,  and  were  almost  as  long  as  the  boat  itself. 
At  the  stern  was  a  still  longer  steering  oar.  When  the 
water  rose  in  the  autumn  these  boats  carried  loads  of 
produce  and  bore  thousands  of  families  who  were  seek 
ing  homes  farther  west. 

Old  and  young  with  their  household  treasures,  which 
often  included  the  cow,  sailed  down  in  these  rude  house 
boats  to  some  chosen  spot  in  the  distant  wilderness.  It 
was  in  a  boat  like  these  that  the  tall  and  awkward  young 
man,  Abraham  Lincoln,  made  a  voyage  to  New  Orleans 
and  first  saw  something  of  the  outside  world. 

Redstone  was  an  old  name  for  Brownsville,  where  the 
National  Road  crossed  the  Monongahela,  and  many 


Il8  FROM    TRAIL  TO    RAILWAY 

boats  started  from  here  in  early  days.  It  is  said  that  an 
old  boatman  was  once  hailed  by  a  seeker  after  informa 
tion.  "Where  are  you  from?"  was  the  first  question. 
"  Redstone,"  was  the  answer.  "  What  is  your  lading  ?  " 
"  Millstones."  "  What  is  your  captain's  name  ?  "  "  Whet 
stone."  "Where  are  you  bound?"  "For  Limestone." 
The  interesting  part  of  the  story  is  that  these  answers 
were  all  true. 

Large  as  the  traffic  was  by  the  flatboats,  it  was  greatly 
increased  when  steamboats  began  to  run  on  the  rivers. 
No  other  craft  could  hope  to  compete  with  these. 

The  boatmen  owed  a  grudge  to  the  steamboat,  just  as 
the  pack-horse  men  had  hated  the  Conestoga  wagon,  for 
they  saw  that  their  trade  was  lost,  and  it  was  hard  to 
try  to  make  a  living  in  some  other  way.  For  many  years 
the  great  passenger  boats  reigned  supreme  on  the  rivers 
of  the  West,  but  at  last  they  in  turn  were  forced  to  give 
way  to  the  railroads.  Such  boats  still  run  on  the  Ohio 
and  the  Mississippi,  but  men  do  not  travel  on  them 
when  they  wish  to  go  quickly. 

Railroad  cars,  however,  do  not  take  the  place  of  some 
boats  on  the  Ohio.  Look  out  on  the  Monongahela  at 
Pittsburg  and  you  may  see  large  fields  of  boats,  —  many 
acres  of  barges,  for  there  are  barges  on  the  river  still, 
though  they  do  not  look  like  the  old  ones.  They  are  of 
great  size  and  are  sometimes  made  of  steel.  The  coal, 
taken  from  the  hill  out  of  which  it  is  dug,  is  run  on  a 
trestle  along  the  river  and  dumped  into  one  of  these 
boats.  At  Pittsburg  the  barges  wait  for  the  water  to 
rise  to  a  "  coal -boat  "  stage,  —  that  is,  until  there  is  a 
depth  of  at  least  eight  feet  all  the  way  down  the  river. 


CITIES    OF   THE    OHIO  VALLEY  119 

Then  a  number  of  barges  are  lashed  together  and  a 
steamboat  pushes  them  down  the  stream.  The  water  often 
comes  up  suddenly,  and  the  coal  must  be  rushed  to  mar 
ket  while  the  high  water  lasts.  A  single  towboat  some 
times  takes  to  New  Orleans  several  acres  of  coal  from 
the  great  Pittsburg  coal  seam.  This  lies  flat  under  the 
hilltops  and  is  mined  from  the  edges  where  the  rivers 


:  FIG.  46.  COAL  BARGES,  PITTSBURG 

have  cut  down  through  the  coal,  far  into  the  beds  of 
rock  that  lie  below. 

On  the  Monongahela  the  United  States  owns  fifteen 
dams  with  locks,  and  the  river  is  thus  "slacked"  far 
up  into  West  Virginia.  The  dams  change  the  river  into 
a  series  of  long,  still  ponds,  which  are  deep  enough  to 
float  the  coal  barges.  Below  Pittsburg,  in  the  Ohio,  is 
another  dam  which  sets  the  water  back  and  makes  a 
harbor  for  the  city. 

There  is  no  coal  to  send  down  the  Allegheny,  but  there 
are  logs  to  be  rafted,  and  there  is  much  oil,  for  the  river 


2O 


FROM   TRAIL   TO    RAILWAY 


flows  through  the  petroleum  region  around  Oil  City. 
Some  of  this  is  taken  to  refineries  at  Pittsburg  and  made 
ready  for  use.  Much  natural  gas  is  obtained  by  boring  and 
is  used  in  the  city  for  warming  houses  and  for  cooking. 

A  cloud  of  smoke  from  the  soft  coal  burned  in  so 
many  shops  and  furnaces  hangs  over  the  lower  parts  of 
Pittsburg  and  has  given  it  the  name  of  "The  Smoky 


FIG.  47.  PITTSBURG  AT  NIGHT 

City."  James  Parton  says  that  on  the  first  morning  of 
his  visit  there  he  felt  sure  that  he  was  rising  very  early, 
for  the  street  lamps  were  all  burning  and  he  ate  his 
breakfast  in  a  room  lighted  by  gas.  As  the  room  was 
filled  with  people,  he  thought  Pittsburg  was  very  enter 
prising,  and  himself  along  with  it,  but  he  was  quite  taken 
aback  when  he  looked  at  his  watch  and  found  that  it  was 
almost  nine  o'clock.  Darker  even  than  the  streets  are  the 


CITIES    OF    THE  OHIO   VALLEY 


121 


"rooms"  in  which  thousands  of  miners,  within  a  few  miles 
of  the  city,  dig  out  coal  with  their  picks  and  shovels. 

If  one  rides  into  Pittsburg  by  night,  he  will  see  some 
thing  finer  than  fireworks.  The  train  is  likely  to  whirl 
him  past  long  rows  of  fiery  ovens  in  which  coal  is  being 
made  into  coke.  And  in  many  towns  near  by,  as  well  as 


FIG.  48.   FURNACES  NEAR  PITTSBURC; 

along  the  rivers  by  the  city  itself,  the  jets  of  flame  will 
show  iron  furnaces  and  steel  mills,  with  grimy  workmen 
moving  about  in  the  strange  light. 

The  iron  ore.  for  these  furnaces  is  brought  from  many 
parts  of  the  country,  but  chiefly  from  the  lands  around 
lake  Superior.  It  is  shipped  down  the  lakes  in  large 


122  FROM    TRAIL   TO    RAILWAY 

steamers  and  loaded  into  cars  at  Cleveland  or  some  other 
port  on  lake  Erie.  Instead  of  carrying  the  coal  to  the 
ore,  the  ore  is  thus  brought  to  the  coal,  without  which  it 
could  not  be  worked.  The  reason  for  this  is  that  Pitts- 
burg  is  much  nearer  the  places  where  most  of  the  iron 
is  to  be  used.  If  the  coal  of  Pennsylvania  were  taken  to 
the  iron  mines  of  Minnesota  and  the  furnaces  built  there, 
much  of  the  iron  and  steel  would  have  to  be  carried  back 
a  long  way  to  Boston,  New  York,  Philadelphia,  and  other 
parts  of  the  East. 

Glass  mills  form  an  important  part  of  the  city's  indus 
tries  and  have  been  in  operation  for  a  long  time.  Bottle 
glass  is  manufactured  here,  besides  three  fourths  of  all 
the  plate  glass  of  the  United  States.  Perhaps  it  is  be 
cause  bottles  are  made  in  Pittsburg  that  we  find  here 
also  the  largest  cork  factory  in  the  world. 

Pittsburg  is  proud  of  the  fact  that  she  handles  more 
tons  of  freight  in  a  year  than  any  other  city  in  the  world. 
Indeed,  the  tonnage  is  greater  than  that  of  New  York 
and  Chicago  taken  together. 

The  old  "  point  "  between  the  rivers  is  filled  with  tall 
buildings.  Inclined  railways  run  up  the  steep  bluffs  on 
the  further  side  of  each  river  and  lead  to  the  beautiful 
streets  and  the  homes  where  many  of  the  people  live. 
For  Pittsburg  is  not  all  coal  and  furnaces  and  smoke, 
but  has  fine  churches,  the  great  Carnegie  Library  and 
Museum,  and  many  schools.  But  it  is  mostly  because  of 
the  coal  and  the  rivers  that  we  find  here  a  splendid  city. 

Sixty-three  miles  down  the  Ohio  river,  on  its  left  bank, 
is  Wheeling,  the  largest  city  in  West  Virginia.  The 
business  streets  lie  close  to  the  Ohio,  and  the  houses 


CITIES    OF   THE    OHIO  VALLEY  123 

extend  up  the  steep  slope  to  the  east,  while  over  a  high 
ridge  comes  the  old  National  Road  from  the  valley  of 
Wheeling  creek.  Wheeling  was  the  goal  of  many  heavily 
laden  wagons  in  the  days  of  the  pike,  and  because  of  the 
river  and  many  railroads  has  a  large  trade  to-day.  It 
was  settled  in  1770  and  is  one  of  the  oldest  towns  on 
the  river. 

On  the  north  bank  of  the  great  stream,  in  the  south 
west  corner  of  Ohio,  is  the  largest  city  on  the  river.  As 
late  as  1900  Cincinnati  had  a  few  thousand  more  people 
than  Pittsburg,  but  a  "  greater  Cincinnati  "  would  not  be 
so  large  as  a  "  greater  Pittsburg." 

In  Cincinnati,  as  in  Pittsburg,  men  do  business  on  the 
low  grounds  by  the  river,  where  offices  and  mills  and 
shops  crowd  one  another,  and  the  smoke  of  soft  coal  hangs 
as  a  cloud  above.  Business  hours  over,  the  well-to-do 
merchants  climb  out  of  the  grimy  town  to  the  top  of  the 
bluffs,  and  there  find,  in  a  clearer  air  and  along  open  and 
beautiful  avenues,  their  comfortable  homes.  Down  town 
the  turbulent  river  sometimes  comes  up  forty  or  fifty 
feet  beyond  its  usual  level  and  makes  trouble  in  the 
busy  city,  but  Mt.  Auburn  and  Walnut  Hills  are  dis 
turbed  neither  by  smoke  nor  by  floods. 

Rivers  do  not  often  flow  in  straight  lines,  and  it  is  very 
common  for  them  to  change  their  courses  along  their  flood 
plains.  This  habit  of  shifting  belongs  alike  to  great  and 
small  streams,  whether  the  Mississippi  or  the  brook  in  the 
meadow.  The  Ohio,  like  other  rivers,  often  writes  the  letter 
S,  and  in  so  doing  at  this  point  has  swung  off  from  its  old 
north  bank,  leaving  a  low  plain  with  room  enough  for  a  hun 
dred  thousand  people  to  carry  on  their  business.  There  is 


124  FROM   TRAIL  TO   RAILWAY 

always  some  good  reason  which  has  led  to  the  settlement 
and  growth  of  a  town,  and  the  history  of  Cincinnati 
shows  no  exception. 

It  was  in  early  winter,  1788,  when  cakes  of  ice  were 
already  floating  on  the  river,  that  a  number  of  men  sail 
ing  downstream  stopped  here  and  began  a  settlement. 
The  place  was  not  readily  named.  It  is  said  that  the 
matter  was  left  to  a  frontier  schoolmaster,  and  he  did  not 
lose  the  chance  to  show  how  much  he  knew.  He  saw 
that  the  Licking  river  comes  into  the  Ohio  on  the  Ken 
tucky  side  just  opposite.  So  he  set  down  an  L.  He 
next  remembered  an  ancient  word  os,  meaning  "mouth," 
and  he  put  that  down.  Then  he  considered  that  anti 
means  "opposite"  and  that  inlle  means  "town."  So  he 
wrote  the  whole  name,  —  L-os-anti-villc,  —  Losantiville, 
—  "the  town  opposite  the  mouth  of  Licking." 

We  might  wonder  whether  a  town  with  a  name  like 
that  would  ever  grow  into  a  great  city.  It  did  not  have 
to  try,  for  it  was  not  long  before  General  St.  Clair,  who 
had  come  there,  made  fun  of  the  name  and  insisted  upon 
a  new  one.  He  and  other  officers  of  the  American  army 
had  formed  a  society  commemorating  their  experience  in 
the  Revolution,  and  in  honor  of  the  Roman  patriot  Cin- 
cinnatus  had  called  themselves  the  Order  of  Cincinnati. 
St.  Clair  thought  this  a  good  name  for  the  town,  and 
Cincinnati  it  has  been  since  that  time. 

The  place  has  its  nickname  also,  and  its  people  like  to 
call  it  the  Queen  City,  which  seems  to  go  very  well  with 
Beautiful  River.  Another  name,  rarely  used  and  not 
very  pleasing,  perhaps,  to  those  who  live  there,  is  "  Pork- 
opolis,"  which  came  from  the  fact  that  for  forty  years 


125 


126  FROM   TRAIL   TO   RAILWAY 

before  the  American  Civil  War  more  pork  packing  was 
done  in  Cincinnati  than  anywhere  else  in  the  country. 

Sir  Charles  Lyell,  an  Englishman  who  saw  Cincinnati 
in  1842,  speaks  of  the  "  pork  aristocracy,"  explaining  that 
he  means  the  men  that  had  grown  rich  by  packing  pork, 
and  not  the  pigs  that  he  saw  running  in  the  streets. 
This  shows  how  new  some  of  our  large  business  centers 
are,  though  it  would  be  a  great  mistake  to  suppose  that 
pigs  and  cows  now  run  loose  in  western  cities.  In  those 
days  such  places  were  teaching  the  country  how  to  "  pack 
fifteen  bushels  of  corn  into  a  pig,"  and  how  to  send  the 
produce  of  the  farms  to  distant  cities  or  other  lands  in 
such  a  way  as  to  get  the  most  money  for  the  least  freight. 

When  Charles  Dickens  visited  this  country  many  years 
ago  he  went  to  Cincinnati,  and  spoke  well  of  the  place. 
This  was  a  great  compliment,  for  the  famous  English 
story-teller  was  hard  to  suit  when  he  was  looking  at 
anything  American.  If  he  could  come  back  to  Cincin 
nati  now,  he  might  find  even  more  to  please  and  sur 
prise  him. 

Cincinnati  has  always  made  much  use  of  the  river. 
There  were  little  boats  in  which  the  owners  carried  no 
tions  and  such  things  as  a  country  store  sells,  peddling 
them  from  one  settlement  to  another  along  the  banks. 
There  were  barges  and  flatboats  bearing  families  and 
farm  produce.  Then  came  steamboats,  which  carried 
everything,  —  passengers,  grain,  coal,  merchandise,  and 
even  circuses  and  menageries.  We  can  imagine  the 
excitement  among  the  small  boys  of  a  river  town  when 
the  circus  boat  told  of  its  arrival  by  the  fierce  blast  of 
a  loud  steam  whistle.  There  are  steamboats  yet  and  a 


CITIES    OF   THE   OHIO  VALLEY  127 

busy  river  front,  but  great  railroads  center  here,  and 
trains  run  to  Pittsburg  and  Philadelphia,  Cleveland  and 
New  York,  Chicago  and  St.  Louis,  Nashville  and  New 
Orleans.  A  vast  business  is  done.  There  are  many  schools, 
and  to-day  Cincinnati  can  boast  of  her  music,  of  her 
pictures  and  museums,  and  of  the  fine  pottery  that  she 
makes.  She  has  thrown  off  the  schoolmaster's  clumsy 
name,  she  has  many  better  things  than  pork,  and  she  is 
widely  known  as  one  of  America's  great  cities. 

An  early  writer  says  that  the  Ohio  is  "by  far  the 
noblest  river  in  the  universe."  He  writes  this  in  the 
beginning  of  a  history  of  Louisville,  a  book  which  was 
printed  in  1819.  This  in  itself  shows  that  Louisville  is 
one  of  the  old  cities  of  the  Ohio  valley.  It  is  not  so  large 
as  Cincinnati  or  Pittsburg,  but  it  is  the  chief  city  of  the 
great  state  of  Kentucky. 

The  old  boatmen,  finding  that  the  current  was  rapid 
at  a  certain  point,  called  it  the  "falls  of  the  Ohio." 
A  ledge  of  hard  rocks  in  the  bed  of  the  river  caused 
the  rapids  and  made  it  no  easy  task  to  navigate  boats. 
Finally  a  canal  was  dug  by  which  the  rapids  might  be 
avoided  at  low  water. 

It  was  this  ledge  in  the  river  that  started  the  town 
and  finally  made  a  city  out  of  Louisville,  for  boats  going 
in  either  direction  naturally  stopped  at  the  falls.  There 
was  another  reason,  too,  as  we  shall  see  when  we  learn 
something  of  the  "Wilderness  Road,"  which  crossed 
Kentucky  from  the  eastern  mountains  and  came  out 
on  the  river  at  Louisville.  Back  from  the  river  also  lay 
the  rich  and  fertile  Blue  Grass  country  for  which  Ken 
tucky  is  famous. 


128  FROM    TRAIL  TO   RAILWAY 

The  canal  was  ready  to  take  steamboats  around  the 
ledge  in  1831.  Some  of  these  boats  had  interesting 
names,  such  as  the  Enterprise,  the  Vesuvius,  the  Comet, 
the  Volcano,  the  New  Orleans,  the  Cincinnati,  the 
Experiment,  the  Rifleman,  and  the  Rising  States. 

It  was  a  wonderful  life  on  the  river,  and  Louisville  got 
her  share  of  the  gain  of  it,  as  she  now  shares  the  traffic 
of  the  railroads.  To-day  she  is  a  rich  and  beautiful  city 
of  two  hundred  thousand  people. 


CHAPTER  XI 

THK  GRKAT  VALLKY 

Alexander  Spotswood  was  a  famous  governor  of  the 
colony  of  Virginia.  lie  was  of  Scottish  parentage,  but 
he  was  born  in  Morocco,  where  his  father  was  a  surgeon. 
The  lad  grew  up  to  serve  his  country  as  a  soldier,  and 
was  wounded  by  a  cannon  ball  in  a  great  war  then  going 
on  in  Europe.  In  1710  the  king  sent  him  to  Virginia 
to  be  governor,  an  office  which  he  filled  for  twelve  years. 
The  people  liked  him,  though  he  made  some  enemies 
because  he  kept  his  soldierly  ways  and  did  not  always 
speak  in  gentle  phrases.  He  was  a  kind,  warm-hearted 
man,  nevertheless,  loving  his  family  and  friends.  His 
energy,  too,  was  well  known,  and  he  was  always  ready 
to  further  a  new  scheme. 

Because  he  started  the  first  iron  furnaces  in  America 
he  was  called  the  "  Tubal  Cain  of  Virginia,"  Tubal  Cain 
being  known  in  sacred  history  as  the  first  of  metal 
workers.  Nothing  was  more  important  to  the  colonists 
than  iron,  for  they  could  not  always  bring  tools  and 
kettles  and  nails  and  gun  metal  from  England.  The 
governor  showed  his  practical  ability  in  other  ways.  He 
brought  over  Germans  who  knew  how  to  raise  grapes 
and  make  wine.  He  was  interested  in  teaching  the 
Indians,  and  at  one  time  he  sent  out  ships  and  caught 

129 


130  FROM    TRAIL  TO   RAILWAY 

"  Blackboard,"  who,  with  his  fellow-pirates,  was  prowl 
ing  about  the  coast.  When  the  young  Benjamin  Frank 
lin,  in  Boston,  heard  of  the  capture  he  wrote  a  poem 
about  it. 

In  that  day  nearly  all  of  Virginia  was  in  the  "  tide-water 
country,"  but  Spots  wood  had  often  heard  of  the  valley 
beyond  the  Blue  Ridge.  He  made  up  his  mind  to  go  and 
see  this  region,  and  brought  together  a  party  to  make  the 
journey.  They  took  their  servants  and  pack  horses  and 
carried  provisions  and  many  bottles  of  the  wine  which 
the  Germans  had  made.  There  was  good  hunting  in  the 
unbroken  forest  and  they  had  all  the  venison  and  other 
wild  meat  they  could  have  wished. 

A  good  map  of  Virginia  will  show  us  Harpers  Ferry, 
where  the  Potomac  river  runs  through  a  deep  gap  in  the 
Blue  Ridge.  Looking  along  the  range  to  the  southwest, 
we  shall  find,  about  eighty  miles  away,  Swift  Run  Gap, 
not  so  low  a  pass,  but  one  which  made  it  easy  to  cross 
the  mountains  and  go  down  into  the  lowlands  along  the 
Shenandoah  river. 

Spotswood  and  his  friends  climbed  one  of  the  peaks 
of  the  Blue  Ridge  and  named  it  Mt.  George,  after  the 
king.  Another  peak  was  named  Alexander  for  the  gov 
ernor.  Down  by  the  Shenandoah  they  buried  a  bottle 
(the  historian  of  Virginia  thinks  that  by  this  time  they 
must  have  had  several  that  were  empty),  and  in  the 
bottle  was  a  paper  stating  that  they  took  possession 
in  the  name  of  the  king.  They  called  the  river  the 
Euphrates,  but  the  name  did  not  cling  to  it.  We  may 
be  glad  of  that,  for  the  Indian  name  of  Shenandoah  is 
much  more  musical. 


132  FROM    TRAIL  TO    RAILWAY 

If  Spotswood  had  crossed  the  lowlands,  he  would 
have  found  himself  among  other  mountains  running  par 
allel  to  the  Blue  Ridge.  Between  the  two  ranges  is  the 
valley  of  the  Shenandoah,  or,  as  it  is  quite  as  often  called, 
the  valley  of  Virginia.  The  land  is  flat  and  the  soil  deep 
and  rich.  The  soft  shales  and  limestone  of  ancient 
higher  lands  have  wasted  away  here,  between  the  higher 
mountains  on  either  side,  and  thus  we  find  a  valley  and 
a  fertile  valley  floor. 

The  place  was  wild  and  lonely  when  this  band  of 
explorers  visited  it,  but  to-day  it  is  a  country  rich  in 
interest  and  associations.  If  we  go  northeast  we  shall 
pass  Winchester,  which  became  famous  in  the  Civil 
War.  In  another  part  of  the  valley  is  Luray,  where  the 
limestones  have  been  dissolved  under  the  ground,  mak 
ing  a  large  cavern  with  beautiful  stalactites.  Still  going 
northward,  we  shall  pass  Harpers  Ferry  on  our  right 
and  cross  the  Potomac.  On  our  right  also,  after  we 
cross  the  river,  is  Antietam,  where  a  severe  battle  was 
fought  between  Lee  and  McClellan.  A  little  farther  on 
is  Hagerstown,  Colonel  Rochester's  old  home,  in  the 
state  of  Maryland. 

The  next  move  would  take  us  over  into  Pennsylvania, 
through  Chambersburg  and  Carlisle,  about  which  we 
already  know,  and  across  the  Susquehanna  to  Harrisburg. 
On  our  right,  as  we  go  up  into  Pennsylvania,  is  the  low 
South  mountain,  which  is  the  Blue  Ridge  continued.  All 
this  time  we  are  in  the  Great  Valley.  The  valley  of 
Virginia  is  but  a  part  of  the  whole,  which  reaches  through 
several  states  and  everywhere  has  the  Blue  Ridge  on  the 
southeast  and  other  ridges  of  the  Appalachian  mountains 


UNIV_ 


THE 

UNIVERSITY 

\^  OF 

THE   GREAT  VALLEfrN^C^L  F          133 

on  the  northwest.  Every  part  of  the  valley  is  thickly 
settled  and  has  fine  houses  and  homes,  because  its  soil 
produces  good  crops  and  makes  the  people  prosperous. 

Spotsvvood's  journey  opened  the  way  for  families  from 
the  tide-water  region  to  settle  beyond  the  mountains,  but 
they  were  not  the  only  settlers.  It  was  easy  for  the 
people  of  the  Great  Valley  in  Pennsylvania,  where  the 
land  was  earlier  taken  up,  to  push  to  the  southwest  along 
the  same  valley.  They  found  smoother  traveling  and 
better  farms  than  if  they  had  gone  up  into  the  mountains 
on  the  west.  So  we  see  that  the  valley,  leading  south 
west,  guided  the  stream  of  emigrants  in  that  direction. 
The  result  was  that  the  valley  of  Virginia  was  occupied 
partly  by  people  entering  through  Pennsylvania,  and 
partly  by  those  who,  like  Spotswood,  came  through  passes 
in  the  Blue  Ridge.  It  was  thirty  years  later,  when  most 
of  the  land  was  still  a  wilderness,  that  we  find  George 
Washington  crossing  these  same  mountains  to  survey 
for  Lord  Fairfax.  His  path  lay  between  Harpers  Ferry 
and  Swift  Run  Gap. 

In  this  valley,  during  the  Civil  War,  "  Stonewall " 
Jackson,  Sheridan,  and  other  well-known  generals  took 
their  armies  up  and  down,  and  fought  a  number  of  bat 
tles.  The  rich  farms  and  full  barns  of  the  valley  played 
no  small  part  in  the  strife  by  furnishing  food  for  the 
soldiers. 

The  headwaters  of  the  James  river  are  in  the  Great 
Valley.  One  branch  flows  southwest  and  another  north 
east.  These  come  together  and  go  out  to  the  southeast 
by  a  gap  in  the  Blue  Ridge.  To-day  we  come  up  the 
Shenandoah  by  the  Norfolk  and  Western  Railway,  which 


134 


FROM    TRAIL   TO    RAILWAY 


continues  along  these  branches  of  the  James.  Before 
long  we  reach  Roanoke,  a  flourishing  city  just  inside  the 
Blue  Ridge.  Then  follows  the  crossing  of  the  New  river, 
which  flows  northwest  across  the  valley  on  its  long 
course  to  the  Ohio. 

Now  we  are  looking  toward  Tennessee,  and  the  Great 
Valley  soon  takes  us  to  several  long  streams  which  help 

to  form  the  Ten 
nessee  river.  The 
heads  of  these 
streams  we  shall 
find  in  Virginia, 
and  their  names 
are  the  Holston, 
the  Clinch,  and 
Powell's  river. 
The  Great  Valley 
in  this  southwestern  part  of  Virginia  is  really  divided 
into  several  valleys  by  long  and  rather  high  ridges  that 
separate  these  rivers. 

The  main  line  of  the  Southern  Railway,  between 
Washington  and  Knoxville,  runs  along  the  valley  of  the 
Holston  river  and  crosses  from  Virginia  into  Tennessee 
at  Bristol. 

After  we  come  into  Tennessee  the  ridges  that  sepa 
rate  the  streams  fall  away  again,  and  we  find  one  great 
valley,  about  forty  miles  wide.  On  the  northwest  the 
Cumberland  plateau  and  the  Cumberland  mountains  rise 
above  it.  On  the  southeast  there  loom  up  the  Great 
Smoky  mountains  on  the  border  of  North  Carolina. 
Great  Smoky  is  only  another  name  for  the  Blue 


FIG.  51.   JAMES  RIVER  GAP  IN  THE  BLUE 
RIDGE,  FROM  THE  WEST 


THE   GREAT  VALLEY  135 

Ridge,  for  it  is  the  same  range,  only  higher  and  wider 
than  it  is  farther  north. 

Although  this  valley  is  a  part  of  the  Great  Valley, 
it  is  commonly  called  the  valley  of  east  Tennessee,  its 
people  using  the  home  name  as  they  do  in  Virginia.  The 
Holston,  the  Clinch,  and  Powell's  river  are  not  the  only 
branches  of  the  Tennessee.  Out  of  the  Great  Smoky 
mountains  there  flow  from  the  east  the  French  Broad,  the 
Little  Tennessee,  and  the  Hiwassee.  Knoxville  stands 
a  little  below  the  place  where  the  Holston  and  French 
Broad  flow  together,  and  Chattanooga  is  a  hundred  miles 
farther  down,  where  the  Tennessee,  now  a  lordly  stream, 
leaves  the  Great  Valley  and  flows  westward  through  a 
deep  valley  in  the  Cumberland  plateau.  This  lesson  in 
geography  we  must  learn  well,  with  the  help  of  a  map, 
and  we  shall  then  see  what  the  pioneers  did  as  they  fol 
lowed  the  rivers  between  the  mountains. 

It  is  an  old  road  that  runs  from  Pennsylvania  to 
Tennessee  by  the  valley.  It  took  the  pioneer  across 
the  Potomac  through  Winchester  and  Staunton  in  Vir 
ginia.  Farther  on  was  a  fortified  place,  Fort  Chissel, 
built  in  1758,  which  was  on  the  way  to  the  Watauga 
Settlement  and  Cumberland  Gap.  Of  Watauga  we 
must  now  tell,  and  of  the  Cumberland  Gap  in  the  next 
chapter. 

Watauga  is  the  name  of  a  small  river  which  flows  out 
of  the  mountains  on  the  east,  into  the  Great  Valley,  and 
enters  the  Holston.  In  a  pleasant  spot  on  the  banks  of 
this  stream  the  first  settlement  of  white  men  in  Tennes 
see  was  made.  Some  of  the  people  had  come  along  the 
valley  from  Pennsylvania  and  Virginia,  and  others  had 


136  FROM   TRAIL   TO    RAILWAY 

climbed  over  the  mountains  from  North  Carolina  because 
of  the  wrongs  they  had  suffered  there. 

Many  of  these  men  and  women  had  come  from  the 
north  of  Ireland.  They  were  not  of  Irish  but  of  Scotch 
blood,  their  ancestors  having  originally  come  from  Scot 
land  to  make  the  north  of  Ireland  their  home.  For  this 
reason  they  are  often  called  Scotch-Irish,  but  whatever 
we  name  them,  we  are  to  remember  that  they  were  sturdy 
and  intelligent  people.  Conscientious  and  loyal  Presby- 


FIG.  52.    HILLY  FARM  LANDS  IN  THE  GREAT  VALLEY,  NEAR 
KNOXVILLE 

terians  they  were  in  faith,  and  by  nature  brave  and  full 
of  endurance.  Their  fathers  had  shed  their  blood  for 
freedom  on  Scottish  fields,  and  the  sons  were  not  likely 
to  be  frightened  by  a  wilderness  full  of  red  savages. 

Besides  the  Scotch-Irish,  there  were  many  Germans 
who  had  followed  the  valley  from  Pennsylvania,  and 
there  were  Huguenots  also,  besides  a  few  Hollanders 
and  Swedes.  A  fort  was  built  on  the  little  river,  and 
around  this  defense  grew  up  the  Watauga  Settlement. 
There  was  no  Tennessee  in  those  days. 


THE   GREAT  VALLEY  137 

Many  of  the  settlers  had  followed  down  the  valleys 
from  earlier  homes  in  Virginia,  and  it  never  occurred  to 
them  that  they  were  not  still  living  in  Virginia,  and  able 
to  call  on  the  colony  for  help.  But  after  a  time  a  man 
came  to  the  settlement  who  was  a  surveyor,  and  for 
some  reason  he  thought  that  he  would  run  the  boundary 
line  of  Virginia  farther  west.  When  he  had  done  it,  what 
was  the  surprise  of  every  one  to  find  that  they  were  not 
in  Virginia  at  all !  If  they  belonged  to  any  colony,  it 
was  to  North  Carolina.  Unfortunately  there  was  a  lack 
of  good  government  in  that  colony,  and  the  prospect  of 
belonging  to  it  was  not  a  pleasant  one  ;  indeed,  some  of 
the  settlers  had  run  away  from  North  Carolina,  and  had 
felt  safer  because  the  great  mountains  rose  between 
them  and  their  former  home. 

There  seemed  nothing  to  do  but  to  make  a  government 
of  their  own,  so  they  formed  the  Watauga  Association, 
about  which  writers  of  American  history  have  said  a 
good  deal.  It  would  be  interesting  to  see  a  copy  of  the 
constitution  that  was  drawn  up  by  these  backwoodsmen, 
but  it  has  been  lost,  with  little  hope  that  it  will  ever 
be  recovered.  It  is  known,  however,  that  there  was  a 
committee  of  thirteen,  really  a  legislature.  This  com 
mittee  chose  five  of  their  own  number  to  form  a  court, 
which  had  a  clerk  and  a  sheriff  and  made  laws  for  all  the 
settlers.  Roosevelt,  in  his  Winning  of  the  West,  says 
that  these  pioneers  were  the  first  to  build  a  "free  and 
independent  community  "  in  America. 

The  two  most  important  men  of  this  little  state  in  the 
wild  forest  show  us  that  the  settlers  came  from  widely 
different  places.  James  Robertson  was  one,  and  he  came 


138  FROM    TRAIL   TO    RAILWAY 

over  the  mountains  from  North  Carolina.  John  Sevier 
was  the  other,  and  he  came  down  the  valley  from  Vir 
ginia.  We  shall  need  to  know  what  sort  of  men  these 
were. 

James  Robertson  belonged  to  the  Scotch-Irish  people. 
He  was  not  one  of  the  very  first  settlers  at  Watauga,  but 
came  in  the  second  year,  1770.  He  had  no  early  educa 
tion,  and  his  wife,  an  intelligent  woman,  taught  him  to 
read.  He  went  alone  over  the  mountains,  with  only  his 
horse  and  gun,  in  search  of  a  place  for  a  home.  He  found 
the  settlers  and  admired  the  place  which  they  had  cho 
sen,  but  on  his  way  back  in  the  fall  he  lost  his  horse  and 
got  his  powder  wet.  He  wandered  about,  almost  starved, 
until  he  met  some  hunters,  who  helped  him  home.  He 
told  his  neighbors  of  the  lands  in  the  valley,  and  as  soon 
as  the  winter  was  over  his  own  family  and  sixteen  others 
started  out  for  Watauga.  He  built  a  log  house,  went  to 
work  on  the  land,  and  by  his  wisdom  and  energy  soon 
came  to  be  a  leader  of  the  new  colony. 

John  Sevier  did  not  come  until  1772.  His  father  had 
been  a  settler  in  the  Shenandoah  valley,  and  John  fol 
lowed  the  streams,  as  we  have  traced  them,  to  the  Great 
Valley.  He  was  by  birth  a  gentleman,  using  that  word 
to  mean  a  man  born  of  cultivated  parents  and  familiar 
with  the  world.  He  was  well  educated  and  was  acquainted 
with  prominent  men,  such  as  Franklin  and  Madison. 
Both  he  and  Robertson  were  good  fighters,  as  we  shall 
see. 

It  was  not  long  before  seven  hundred  Indian  warriors, 
angry  because  the  white  people  had  made  homes  on  their 
hunting  grounds,  stole  in  upon  the  settlement.  An 


THE   GREAT  VALLEY  139 

Indian  woman,  Nancy  Ward  by  name,  who  felt  kindly 
toward  the  whites,  secretly  warned  them  of  the  attack, 
so  that  when  the  savages  came  they  found  all  the  men, 
women,  and  children  in  the  fort.  It  was  not  much  of  a 
fort,  but  it  saved  their  lives.  The  Indians  kept  up  the 
attack  for  six  days,  but  the  colonists,  led  by  Sevier  and 
Robertson,  held  out  against  them  and  killed  a  number  of 


Fio.  53.  FROM  THE  PINNACLE,  CUMBERLAND  GAP,  LOOKING  NORTH 
EAST  ALONG  THE  CUMBERLAND  MOUNTAINS.    THE  GREAT  VALLEY 

AT  THE  RIGHT 

their  braves.    When  nearly  a  week  had  passed  the  red 
men,  tired  of  the  siege,  went  off  through  the  forest. 

At  one  time,  when  some  lawless  whites  had  killed 
an  Indian  without  reason,  the  members  of  the  tribe 
were  very  angry  and  threatened  to  avenge  the  murder. 
Robertson,  thinking  that  he  could  soften  their  anger, 
went  alone  among  the  fierce  Cherokees.  He  told  them 
that  the  Watauga  people  were  very  sorry  the  man  had 
been  killed,  and  that  they  would  try  to  find  and  punish 


140  FROM   TRAIL  TO    RAILWAY 

the  murderer.  As  the  Indians  believed  Robertson  to  be 
an  honest  man,  they  did  as  he  asked  them  to  do  and 
the  settlers  were  not  disturbed. 

The  Watauga  colonists  had  to  live  in  a  very  rough 
and  simple  way.  They  built  their  cabins  of  logs,  with 
what  were  called  puncheon  floors,  —  that  is,  floors  made 
of  thick,  rude  slabs.  Frequently  a  big  slab  served  for  a 
table,  three-legged  stools  for  chairs,  and  a  row  of  pegs 
for  a  wardrobe.  Roosevelt  says  that  the  dress  of  the 
men  was  largely  copied  from  that  of  the  Indians,  and 
included  a  fur  cap,  leggings  of  buckskin  or  elk  hide,  and 
a  fringed  hunting  shirt.  A  heavy  rifle  was  carried,  which 
was  usually  fired  from  a  rest. 

Garments  and  bed  clothing  were  made  of  wool,  which 
was  spun  at  home  by  the  wives  and  daughters.  The 
women  worked  hard  from  morning  till  night,  and  the 
men  had  many  things  to  do.  There  were  lands  to  be 
cleared,  crops  to  be  raised,  and  game  to  be  hunted  and 
dressed.  Besides  all  these  occupations  it  was  necessary 
to  keep  a  constant  lookout  for  hostile  savages  and  to 
have  all  means  of  defense  ready  in  case  of  a  sudden 
attack.  The  Indians  were  so  crafty  and  deceitful  that 
only  the  closest  watchfulness  saved  the  palefaces  from 
danger  and  death.  Sometimes  an  unwary  hunter,  hearing 
the  gobbling  of  a  turkey  or  the  call  of  an  owl,  would 
come  out  into  an  open  place  only  to  be  laid  low  by  the 
red  man's  bullet.  These  experiences  developed  a  strong 
and  brave  people. 

The  settlers  often  bartered  things  because  they  had  no 
money,  and  they  were  ignorant  of  many  of  the  ways  of 
civilized  life.  Some  of  the  frontiersmen  did  not  know 


THE   GREAT  VALLEY  141 

that  tea  leaves  should  be  steeped  and  used  for  a  drink, 
and  tried  to  eat  them  with  butter  or  salt. 

When  a  boy  was  twelve  years  old  he  had  to  begin  to 
take  a  man's  part.  A  gun  was  given  to  him,  and  he 
was  placed  at  a  loophole  in  the  fort  to  help  keep  off  the 
savage  foe.  Thus  the  boys  grew  up  to  be  real  men, 
knowing  little  fear,  able  to  take  care  of  themselves,  and 
helping  to  build  one  of  the  great  states  of  the  American 
Union. 


CHAPTER  XII 

TO  KENTUCKY  BY  THE  CUMBERLAND  GAP 

Dr.  Thomas  Walker  was  a  man  of  Virginia.  He  had 
attended  William  and  Mary  College,  and  was  well  edu 
cated  for  his  times.  As  the  agent  of  a  land  company 
which  had  a  grant  of  new  lands  in  Kentucky,  he,  with 
several  companions,  made  a  hard  journey  of  six  months 
into  the  wilderness.  They  started  at  Charlottesville  in 
Virginia,  went  through  the  Blue  Ridge  into  the  Great 
Valley,  and  then  followed  the  valley  southwest.  One  of 
Walker's  companions  bore  the  name  of  Ambrose  Powell, 
and  as  they  followed  one  of  the  long  streams  that  flow 
to  the  southwest  to  form  the  Tennessee,  they  named  it 
Powell's  river.  His  son  afterwards  was  an  officer  in  the 
Revolution,  and  it  is  said  that  A.  P.  Hill,  a  well-known 
Confederate  general  in  the  Civil  War,  was  his  great- 
grandson. 

These  were,  in  fact,  no  common  men  who,  in  the  year 
1750,  ventured  out  into  the  forest,  over  the  roughest 
trails  we  can  imagine,  among  wild  animals  and  savage 
men.  Following  down  Powell's  river,  the  travelers  saw 
rugged  mountains  on  their  right,  the  Cumberland  range. 
As  they  wished  to  explore  the  forests  of  Kentucky,  they 
were  looking  for  a  chance  to  pass  the  mountains,  and  by 
and  by  they  came  in  sight  of  a  deep  notch,  cut  at  least 

142 


TO  KENTUCKY  BY  THE  CUMBERLAND  GAT   143 

a  thousand  feet  below  the  top  of  the  mountain   ridge 

(Fig.  54). 

They  turned  aside  to  this  and  followed  it  out  of  the 
Great  Valley.  They  had  to  climb  up  about  five  hundred 
feet  through  a  wooded  ravine  in  order  to  reach  the  top 
of  the  pass,  and  there  was  a  similar  slope  on  the  other 
side.  This  brought  them  to  an  open  valley  and  to  a 


FIG.  54.  CUMBERLAND  GAP  FROM  THE  EAST 

river,   which   they   followed   through  a  gap   in    another 
mountain  range,  the  Pineville  mountains. 

Dr.  Walker  called  the  first  pass  the  Cumberland  Gap, 
in  honor  of  a  well-known  Englishman,  and  the  name 
has  survived  even  to  the  present  day.  In  like  manner 
we  have  the  Cumberland  mountains.  Walker  did  not  go 
far  enough  west  to  find  the  beautiful  Kentucky  lands 
on  the  Ohio  river.  After  wandering  about  in  the  high, 
rough  country  of  eastern  Kentucky,  he  finally  reached 
his  Virginia  home  without  having  accomplished  much 
in  the  service  of  his  company. 


144  FROM    TRAIL  TO    RAILWAY 

But  he  had  found  and  named  what  has  become  one  of 
the  most  famous  historical  places  in  America,  the  Cum 
berland  Gap.  He  was  not  the  first  man  to  go  through 
it,  for  the  Indians  had  long  been  familiar  with  it.  Their 
trail  had  traversed  it  for  no  one  knows  how  many  gener 
ations.  Not  only  did  it  lead  directly  to  the  open,  fertile 
country  west  of  the  mountains,  but  beyond  it  the  war 
rior's  trail  stretched  northward  through  the  woods  to 
the  Ohio  river. 

The  Watauga  Settlement  was  about  fifty  miles  east 
ward  from  the  Cumberland  Gap.  As  the  hardy  pioneers 
did  not  make  much  of  following  a  forest  trail  for  fifty 
miles,  the  Watauga  colony  was  next  door  to  Kentucky, 
and  the  great  gap  in  the  Cumberland  mountains  was 
only  a  step  farther  on,  either  for  them  or  for  travelers 
to  the  West  who  might  choose  this  route. 

We  must  now  follow  the  fortunes  of  the  most  famous 
of  Kentucky  hunters  and  pioneers,  who,  while  he  did  not 
find  or  name  the  Cumberland  Gap,  often  went  through 
it,  and  is  remembered  by  most  people  in  connection 
with  it.  This  man  was  Daniel  Boone. 

We  could  not  find  a  better  example  of  the  movement 
along  the  Great  Valley  to  the  southwest  than  the  life  of 
Boone  ;  for  his  childhood  was  spent  on  what  was  then 
the  frontier,  and  his  experience  was  like  that  of  hundreds 
of  others  similarly  reared. 

Boone  was  born  near  the  Schuylkill  river  in  Penn 
sylvania  in  1 734,  two  years  after  the  birth  of  Washington. 
This  part  of  Pennsylvania  was  still  on  the  edge  of  the 
wilderness,  and  from  his  early  boyhood  Boone  knew 
all  about  the  Indians.  His  family  were  Quakers,  and  he 


TO  KENTUCKY  BY  THE  CUMBERLAND  GAP   145 

himself  was  quiet  and  thoughtful,  learning  to  read  from 
the  Quaker  wife  of  his  eldest  brother,  but  getting  most  of 
his  education  in  the  fields  and  woods.  Though  he  could 


read,  he  spelled  almost  as  badly  as  did  Nicholas  Herki- 
mer.  Boone  had  some  experience  as  a  blacksmith,  which, 
his  biographer  says,  taught  him  how  to  mend  his  traps 
and  guns.  He  used  to  hunt  in  the  woods  in  winter, 
helping  thus  to  feed  the  family,  and  with  the  skins  which 


146  FROM  TRAIL  TO  RAILWAY 

he  took  to  Philadelphia  he  bought  powder,  lead,  and 
hunting  knives. 

When  Boone  was  about  sixteen  years  old  his  family 
decided  to  move.  They  went  along  the  Great  Valley,  as 
many  were  doing  in  those  days,  crossed  the  Potomac, 
and  traveled  far  through  the  valley  of  Virginia.  Then 
they  turned  east,  crossed  the  Blue  Ridge,  and  made  a 
home  in  the  valley  of  the  Yadkin  river  in  North  Carolina. 
They  were  thus  east  of  the  mountains,  and  across,  to  the 
west,  was  the  Watauga  Settlement. 

While  his  home  was  in  North  Carolina  Boone  had  an 
experience  which  helped  him  to  be  a  rugged  pioneer,  for 
he  went  up  to  Virginia  and  across  the  mountains  with 
General  Braddock,  serving  as  wagoner  and  blacksmith. 
He  found  himself  in  dangerous  quarters  in  the  battle, 
where  many  of  the  teamsters  were  shot,  but  he  man 
aged  to  cut  his  horses  loose,  mounted  one  of  them,  and 
escaped . 

On  this  expedition  he  made  friends  with  John  Finley, 
and  together  they  planned  to  go  at  some  future  time  to 
Kentucky  by  the  Cumberland  Gap  and  enjoy  the  fine 
hunting  in  the  forests  of  the  West.  Finley  had  already 
made  a  journey  down  to  the  falls  of  the  Ohio  river. 

At  home  Boone  lived,  like  all  others  in  those  valleys, 
in  a  small  log  cabin  chinked  with  clay  and  warmed  by 
a  large  fireplace,  in  which,  says  his  biographer,  "  the 
young  wife  (for  Boone  was  now  married)  cooked  simple 
meals  of  corn  mush,  pumpkins,  squashes,  beans,  potatoes, 
and  pork,  or  wild  meat  of  many  kinds." 

Boone  spent  his  time  in  farming,  working  at  the  forge, 
and  hunting ;  but  he  liked  hunting  best,  and  was  never 


TO  KENTUCKY  BY  THE  CUMBERLAND  (iAP   147 

so  happy  as  in  the  thick  forest  alone  with  his  gun.  He 
often  went  on  long  hunting  trips,  returning  with  bear's 
meat,  venison,  bear's  oil,  and  furs,  the  last  to  be  sold 
for  other  things  needed  at  home. 

In  1767  Boone  and  one  or  two  friends  made  a  hunt 
ing  tour  into  Kentucky,  though  they  did  not  know  they 
were  so  far  west  as  that.  As  they  were  kept  there  by 


FlG.  56.  PlNEVlLLE  GAP,  WHERE  THE  CUMHERLAXI)  RlVER  PASSES 
PINEVILLE  MOUNTAIN  A  FEW  MILES  BEYOND  CUMBERLAND  GAP 

heavy  snows,  they  camped  at  a  "  salt  lick  "  and  lived  by 
shooting  the  buffaloes  and  other  animals  that  came  to 
get  the  salt. 

The  hunters  returned  to  their  homes  in  the  spring 
and  did  not  go  out  until  1769.  Meantime  John  Finley 
was  peddling  in  that  south  land,  and  one  day  surprised 
Boone,  and  himself,  too,  by  knocking  at  the  door  of 
Boone's  cabin.  He  made  the  hardy  pioneer  a  long  visit, 


148  FROM   TRAIL  TO    RAILWAY 

and  in  the  spring,  having  talked  it  all  over  many  times, 
they  set  out  for  Kentucky. 

They  crossed  the  Blue  Ridge  and  the  Great  Valley 
and  came  to  Cumberland  Gap.  This  was  Boone's  first 
journey  to  the  great  pass.  It  is  pleasant  now  to  stand 
in  the  gap  at  the  top  of  the  pass  and  think  of  the 
time  when  Boone  with  his  hunting  friends  made  their 
way  up  from  the  east  and  went  happily  down  through 
the  woods  to  the  strange  country  on  the  west. 

At  one  time  they  were  taken  by  Indians,  who  plun 
dered  their  camp  and  stole  all  their  furs.  Most  of  the 
party  were  discouraged  and  went  back  to  the  settlements, 
but  Boone  and  one  companion  were  angry  at  their  loss 
and  determined  to  stay  and  make  it  good.  This  was  like 
Boone,  who  knew  nothing  of  fear,  and  who  did  not  easily 
give  up  what  he  wanted  to  do. 

He  made  several  trips  to  Kentucky  and  greatly  liked 
the  new  country.  At  length,  having  decided  to  take  his 
family  with  him  and  make  his  home  there,  he  became 
the  leader  of  the  pioneers  that  went  out  under  the 
Transylvania  Company,  as  it  was  called. 

They  built  a  fort  and  founded  a  place  named  Boones- 
borough,  after  the  great  hunter.  But  he  was  much  more 
than  a  hunter,  being  now  a  military  commander  and  do 
ing  surveying  also  for  people  who  were  taking  up  tracts 
of  new  land.  Houses  and  forts  were  built,  forests  were 
cleared,  and  crops  were  raised.  Such  was  the  beginning 
of  the  state  of  Kentucky. 

It  was  not  all  simple  and  pleasant  work,  however. 
In  1768,  the  year  before  Daniel  Boone  and  John  Finley 
went  through  the  Cumberland  Gap,  a  great  company  of 


TO  KENTUCKY  BY  THE  CUMBERLAND  GAP   149 

Indians  had  gathered  at  Fort  Stanvvix,  which  we  remem 
ber  from  the  battle  of  Oriskany,  and  by  a  treaty  had 
given  to  the  English  the  rights  to  the  Kentucky  region. 
But  the  powerful  Cherokees  of  the  southern  mountains 
were  not  at  Fort  Stanwix,  and  they  had  something  to  say 
about  the  settlement  of  Kentucky  lands.  So  Boone  called 
them  together  at  a  great  meeting  on  the  Watauga  river, 
and  bought  the  Kentucky  forests  from  them.  This  was 
the  time  when  an  old  chief  said  to  Boone,  "  Brother,  we 
have  given  you  a  fine  land,  but  I  believe  you  will  have 
much  trouble  settling  it."  The  old  Indian  was  right,  — 
they  did  have  much  trouble.  Cabins  were  burnt,  and 
settlers  were  slain  with  gun  and  tomahawk,  but  Boone 
and  many  others  with  him  would  admit  no  failure. 
People  began  to  pour  in  through  the  Cumberland  Gap, 
until  more  forests  were  cleared,  the  towns  grew  larger, 
and  the  Indians,  who  do  not  like  to  fight  in  the  open 
country,  drew  back  to  the  woods  and  the  mountains. 

Boone  marked  out  the  trail  which  was  afterwards 
known  as  the  Wilderness  road.  It  had  also  been  known 
as  Boone's  trail,  Kentucky  road,  Virginia  road,  and 
Caintuck  Hog  road.  A  man  who  went  out  with  Boone 
in  one  of  his  expeditions  to  Kentucky  kept  a  diary,  and 
in  it  he  gives  the  names  of  some  of  the  new  settlers. 
One  of  these  was  Abraham  Hanks,  who  was  Abraham 
Lincoln's  grandfather.  It  was  no  easy  journey  that  these 
men  made  to  Kentucky,  and  no  easy  life  that  they  found 
when  they  got  there,  but  they  planted  the  first  American 
state  beyond  the  mountains,  and  the  rough  pioneers  who 
lived  in  cabins  and  ate  pork,  pumpkins,  and  corn  bread 
were  the  ancestors  of  some  of  our  most  famous  men. 


150 


FROM   TRAIL   TO   RAILWAY 


The  Wilderness  road  has  never  been  a  good  one,  and  is 
no  more  than  any  other  byroad  through  a  rough  country 
to-day.  Sometimes  the  early  travelers,  who  always  went 
in  companies  for  safety,  would  be  too  tired  to  go  on  until 
they  had  stopped  to  rest  and  to  get  cheer  by  singing 
hymns  and  saying  prayers.  But  they  made  the  best  of 


it,  for  they  knew  that  they  were  going  to  a  fine  country, 
which  would  repay  them  for  their  sufferings. 

Boone  and  five  other  men  were  once  in  camp  by  a 
stream,  and  were  lucky  enough  to  have  with  them  the 
story  of  Gulliver  s  Travels.  One  of  the  young  men,  who 
had  been  hearing  the  book  read  by  the  camp  fire,  came 
in  one  night  bearing  a  couple  of  scalps  that  he  had  taken 
from  a  pair  of  savages.  He  told  his  friends  that  "  he 
had  been  that  day  to  Lulbegrud  and  had  killed  two 


TO  KENTUCKY  BY  THE  CUMBERLAND  GAP   151 

Brobdingnags  in  their  capital."  The  stream  near  which  it 
happened  is  still  called  Lulbegrud  creek.  These  wilder 
ness  men  made  the  best  of  things,  and  though  they 
worked  hard  and  fought  often,  they  were  a  cheerful  and 
happy  company.  They  were  not  spoiled  by  having  too 
many  luxuries,  and  they  did  not  think  that  the  world 
owed  them  a  living  without  any  effort  on  their  part. 

Beginning  about  the  time  of  the  Declaration  of  Inde 
pendence,  many  people  found  the  way  to  Kentucky  by 
the  Great  Valley,  the  Cumberland  Gap,  and  the  Wilder 
ness  road .  When  fifteen  years  had  gone  by  there  were  sev 
enty  thousand  people  in  Kentucky,  along  the  Ohio  river. 
Not  all  had  come  by  the  gap,  for  some  had  sailed  down 
the  river  ;  but  they  all  helped  to  plant  the  new  state. 

Moreover  in  fighting  off  the  Indians  from  their  own 
cabins  and  cornfields  they  had  protected  the  frontiers  of 
Virginia  and  others  of  the  older  states,  so  that  Kentucky 
was  a  kind  of  advance  guard  beyond  the  mountains,  and 
led  the  way  for  Ohio,  Indiana,  Tennessee,  and  other  great 
states  in  the  West  and  South. 

Down  in  the  heart  of  Kentucky,  by  the  Ohio  river,  is 
a  land  long  known  as  the  Kentucky  Blue  Grass  region. 
The  "  blue  grass,"  as  it  is  called,  grows  luxuriantly  here, 
as  do  grain  and  tobacco,  for  the  soils,  made  by  the 
wasting  of  limestone,  are  rich  and  fertile.  \Vherever  the 
soil  and  climate  are  good,  crops  are  large  and  the  people 
thrive.  They  have  enough  to  eat  and  plenty  to  sell,  and 
thus  they  can  have  good  homes,  many  comforts,  books, 
and  education. 

If  the  pioneers  had  had  to  settle  in  the  high,  rough, 
eastern  parts  of  Kentucky,  it  would  not  have  been  worth 


152 


FROM  TRAIL  TO   RAILWAY 


while  to  suffer  so  much  to  get  there ;  but  they  were  on  the 
way  to  the  Blue  Grass  country.  Even  before  the  coming 
of  the  white  man  there  were  open  lands  which,  perhaps 
by  Indian  fires,  had  lost  their  cover  of  trees.  Such  lands 
are  often  called  prairies.  These  prairies,  however,  were 
not  so  flat  as  those  of  Illinois,  and  they  were  bordered  by 
groves  and  forests.  There  were  fine  streams  everywhere, 
and  near  by  was  the  great  Ohio,  ready  to  serve  as  a  high 
way  toward  Philadelphia  or  New  Orleans. 


FIG.  58.   KENTUCKY  BLUE  GRASS 

The  Wilderness  road  came  out  on  the  river  at  the  falls 
of  the  Ohio,  and  here,  as  we  have  learned,  a  city  began 
to  spring  up,  partly  because  of  the  falls  and  partly  be 
cause  of  the  Blue  Grass  region  lying  back  of  it.  In  this 
region  we  find  the  state  capital,  and  here,  along  the  roads, 
may  be  seen  old  mansions  belonging  to  well-to-do  descend 
ants  of  the  plucky  men  who  came  in  by  the  Wilderness 
road  or  steered  their  flatboats  down  the  Ohio. 

If  we  go  back  to  Cumberland  Gap,  we  shall  see  that 
many  things  have  happened  since  Boone's  time.  In  the 
pass  and  on  the  Pinnacle,  a  thousand  feet  above  on  the 
north,  are  ridges  of  earth,  which  show  where  busy  shovels 


TO  KENTUCKY  BY  THE  CUMBERLAND  GAP 


53 


threw  up  defenses  in  the  Civil  War;  for  armies  passed  this 
way  between  Kentucky  and  the  valley  of  Tennessee,  and 
made  the  gap  an  important  point  to  be  seized  and  held. 

The  road  through  the  gap  is  still  about  as  bad  a  path 
as  one  could  find.  Near  it  on  the  east  side  of  the  moun 
tains  is  yet  to  be  seen  a  furnace  of  rough  stones,  built 
in  those  early  days  for  smelting  iron.  But  there  is  little 
else  to  remind  us  of  that 
far-off  time.  To-day  you 
may,  if  you  choose,  pass 
the  mountains  without 
climbing  through  the 
gap,  for  trains  go  roaring 
through  a  tunnel  a  mile 
long,  while  the  echo  of 
the  screaming  whistles 
rolls  along  the  moun 
tain  sides. 

On  the  flat  grounds 
just  inside  the  gap  is 
Middlesboro,  a  town  of 
several  thousand  people, 
with  wide  streets  and  well-built  shops  and  houses.  Only 
a  few  miles  away  are  coal  mines  from  which  thousands  of 
tons  of  coal  are  dug,  and  this  is  one  reason  why  the  rail 
roads  are  here.  There  are  endless  stores  of  fuel  under 
these  highlands,  and  men  are  breaking  into  the  wilderness 
as  fast  as  they  can. 

But  if  we  climb  through  the  gap  as  Boone  did,  or  ride 
a  horse  to  the  Pinnacle,  we  may  look  out  upon  the  wonder 
ful  valley  below,  stretching  off  to  the  foot  of  the  Great 


FIG.  59.   THREE  STATES  MONUMENT, 
CUMBERLAND  GAP 


154  FROM   TRAIL   TO    RAILWAY 

Smoky  mountains,  whose  rugged  tops  carry  our  eyes  far 
over  into  North  Carolina.  Or  we  may  turn  the  other 
way  and  follow  Boone's  trail  to  the  Blue  Grass.  Down 
in  the  gap  is  a  rough,  weather-beaten  pillar  of  limestone 
about  three  feet  high  and  leaning  as  the  picture  shows 
(Fig.  59).  It  is  almost,  but  not  quite,  where  three  states 
come  together,  for  it  is  here,  at  the  Cumberland  Gap, 
that  the  corners  of  Virginia  and  Kentucky  meet  on  the 
edge  of  Tennessee. 


CHAPTER   XIII 

FRONTIER  SOLDIERS  AND  STATESMEN 

Not  long  before  the  Revolution  began  some  treach 
erous  whites  in  the  western  country  had  murdered  the 
whole  family  of  the  friendly  Indian  chief,  Logan.  This 
aroused  the  tribes  and  led  to  war.  A  piece  of  flat  land 
runs  out  between  the  two  streams  where  the  Great 
Kanawha  river  joins  the  Ohio,  in  what  is  now  West 
Virginia.  Here,  on  a  day  early  in  October,  1774,  twelve 
hundred  frontiersmen  were  gathered  under  the  command 
of  an  officer  named  Andrew  Lewis. 

These  backwoods  soldiers  were  attacked  by  a  thousand 
of  the  bravest  Indian  warriors,  commanded  by  Cornstalk, 
a  Shawnee  chief.  It  was  a  fierce  struggle  and  both  sides 
lost  many  men,  but  the  pioneers  held  their  ground,  and 
the  red  men,  when  they  had  had  enough  fighting,  went 
away.  This  battle  at  Point  Pleasant  finished  what  is 
sometimes  known  as  Lord  Dunmore's  War,  so  called  be 
cause  it  was  carried  on  under  Lord  Dunmore,  the  last 
governor  that  the  English  king  sent  out  to  Virginia. 

The  successful  white  men  were  now  free  to  go  down 
the  Ohio  river  and  settle  on  the  Kentucky  lands.  Among 
the  patriots  fighting  for  their  frontier  homes  were  our  old 
friends  James  Robertson  and  John  Sevier  of  Watauga, 
and  another  young  man,  Isaac  Shelby.  We  are  to  hear 

'55 


156  FROM   TRAIL  TO   RAILWAY 

again  about  all  these,  for  they  were  men  likely  to  be 
found  whenever  something  important  was  to  be  done. 

The  Great  Kanawha  is  the  same  stream  that  we  have 
called  the  New  river  where  it  crosses  the  Great  Valley 
in  Virginia.  We  are  learning  how  many  great  rivers 
help  to  make  up  the  Ohio,  and  what  an  important  region 
the  Ohio  valley  was  to  the  young  country  east  of  the 
mountains. 

The  settlements  of  which  we  have  just  read  were  all 
south  of  the  Ohio  river,  for  north  of  the  river  the 
Americans  did  not  possess  the  land.  This  means  that 
the  country  which  now  makes  up  the  states  of  Ohio, 
Indiana,  and  Illinois  was  in  foreign  hands.  The  people 
were  largely  French  and  Indians,  but  they  were  gov 
erned  by  the  British. 

In  order  to  defeat  the  Americans,  the  British,  in  all 
the  years  of  the  Revolutionary  War,  were  stirring  up  the 
Indian  tribes  against  the  patriots.  Just  as  St.  Leger  had 
Indian  allies  in  New  York,  so  British  agents  bribed 
the  Indians  of  the  West  and  South  to  fight  and  make 
as  much  trouble  as  possible. 

George  Rogers  Clark  was  a  young  Virginian  who  had 
gone  out  to  Kentucky,  which  then  belonged  to  the 
mother  state.  He  heard  that  Colonel  Henry  Hamilton, 
who  commanded  the  British  at  Detroit,  was  persuading 
the  Indians  of  that  region  to  attack  the  frontier.  He 
set  out  for  Virginia,  saw  Patrick  Henry,  the  governor, 
Thomas  Jefferson,  and  other  leading  men,  and  gained  per 
mission  to  gather  an  army.  This  was  in  1777,  the  year 
of  Oriskany  and  Saratoga.  He  spent  the  winter  enlisting 
soldiers,  gathering  his  forces  at  Pittsburg. 


FRONTIER   SOLDIERS  AND   STATESMEN      157 

Late  the  next  spring  they  went  in  boats  down  the  Ohio 
to  the  point  where  the  muddy  waters  of  the  Mississippi 


FIG.  60.  GEORGE  ROGERS  CLARK 

come  in  from  the  north.    This  alone  was  a  journey  of 
a  thousand  miles. 

Up  the  Mississippi  from  that  place  was  Kaskaskia, 
on  the  Illinois  side.  It  is  now  a  very  small  village,  but 
it  is  the  oldest  town  on  the  Mississippi  river  and  was 


158  FROM    TRAIL  TO    RAILWAY 

the  first  capital  of  Illinois.  In  the  time  of  the  Revolu 
tion  it  was  governed  by  the  British,  although  most  of 
the  people  were  French.  Clark  and  his  little  army  soon 
seized  the  place  and  made  the  people  promise  obedience 
to  the  new  government. 

There  was  another  important  old  place  called  Vin- 
cennes,  on  the  Wabash  river,  in  what  is  now  Indiana. 

When  Colonel  Hamilton  heard  what  Clark  was  doing 
he  led  an  army  of  five  hundred  men,  many  of  whom  were 
Indians,  from  Detroit  to  Vincennes.  It  took  them  more 
than  two  months  to  make  the  journey.  Clark  sent  some 
of  his  men  with  boats  and  provisions  and  cannon  down 
the  Mississippi,  up  the  Ohio,  and  up  the  Wabash.  He, 
with  most  of  his  little  force,  went  across  the  prairie.  It 
was  a  winter  march  and  they  had  to  wade  through  flood 
waters  for  a  part  of  the  way. 

He  found  the  food  and  the  guns  and  soon  captured 
Hamilton  and  his  army.  This  was  the  last  of  British 
government  between  the  Ohio  river  and  the  Great  Lakes. 
At  the  close  of  the  war  the  American  messengers,  who 
were  in  Paris  arranging  for  peace,  could  say  that  they 
already  had  possession  of  all  the  land  this  side  of  the 
Mississippi,  so  no  excuse  was  left  for  the  British  to 
claim  it.  In  this  way  one  frontier  soldier  saved  several 
great  states  for  his  country. 

The  frontiersmen  had  beaten  Cornstalk  at  Point  Pleas 
ant  in  1774.  Clark  had  won  the  prairie  country  five 
years  later ;  and  the  next  year,  1 780,  saw  the  great 
victory  of  Kings  Mountain. 

Lord  Cornwallis  was  now  chief  general  of  the  British. 
He  had  conquered  the  southern  colonies,  the  Carolinas 


FRONTIER   SOLDIERS  AND   STATESMEN      159 

and  Georgia.  Two  of  his  officers,  Tarleton  and  Fergu 
son,  were  brave  and  active  commanders,  and  they  were 
running  over  the  country  east  of  the  mountains  keeping 
the  patriots  down.  Ferguson  gathered  together  many 
American  Tories  and  drilled  them  to  march  and  fight. 

The  Watauga  men,  just  over  the  mountains  to  the 
west,  were  loyal  patriots.    Ferguson  heard  of  them  and 


FIG.  61.  ON  THE  FRENCH  BROAD,  BETWEEN  ASHEVILLE  AND 
KNOXVILLE 

sent  them  a  stormy  message.  He  told  them  to  keep 
still  or  he  would  come  over  and  scatter  them  and  hang 
their  leading  men. 

They  were  not  used  to  talk  of  this  kind  and  they 
determined  to  teach  Ferguson  a  lesson.  Isaac  Shelby 
rode  in  hot  haste  from  his  home  to  John  Sevier's  log 
house  on  the  Nolichucky  river.  When  he  arrived  he 
found  all  the  neighbors  there  ;  for  Sevier  had  made 
a  barbecue,  and  there  was  to  be  a  big  horse  race,  with, 


l6o  FROM   TRAIL   TO    RAILWAY 

running  and  wrestling  matches.  Shelby  took  Sevier  off 
by  himself  and  told  him  about  Ferguson.  They  agreed 
to  call  together  the  mountain  men  and  go  over  the  Great 
Smokies  to  punish  the  British  general. 

On  September  25,  1780,  they  came  together  at  Syca 
more  Shoals  on  the  Watauga  river.  Almost  everybody 
was  there,  women  and  children  as  well  as  men.  Four 
hundred  sturdy  men  came  from  Virginia  under  William 
and  Arthur  Campbell.  These  two  leaders  and  most  of 
the  men  in  the  valley  were  sons  of  old  Scotch  Covenant 
ers,  and  they  were  determined  to  win.  A  stern  Presby 
terian  minister,  the  Reverend  Samuel  Doak,  was  there. 
He  had  as  much  fight  in  him  as  any  of  them,  and  as  they 
stood  in  their  rough  hunter's  garb  he  called  upon  God 
for  help,  preaching  to  them  from  the  words,  "  The  sword 
of  the  Lord  and  of  Gideon." 

They  set  out  at  once  through  the  mountains,  driving 
beef  cattle  for  part  of  their  food  supply,  and  every  man 
armed  with  rifle,  tomahawk,  and  scalping  knife.  Roose 
velt  says  there  was  not  a  bayonet  or  a  tent  in  their  army. 
The  trail  was  stony  and  steep,  and  in  the  higher  moun 
tains  they  found  snow.  They  marched  as  quickly  as 
they  could,  for  they  wanted  to  catch  Ferguson  before 
Cornwallis  could  send  more  soldiers  to  help  him. 

On  the  way  several  hundred  men  from  North  Carolina, 
under  Benjamin  Cleveland,  joined  them.  They  had  ap 
pointed  no  commander  when  they  started,  but  on  the 
march  they  chose  one  of  the  Campbells  from  Virginia. 

When  Ferguson  found  that  they  were  pursuing  him 
and  that  he  must  fight,  he  took  up  a  strong  position 
on  Kings  Mountain,  in  the  northwest  corner  of  South 


FRONTIER   SOLDIERS  AND   STATESMEN      161 

Carolina.  This  hill  was  well  chosen,  for  it  stood  by  itself 
and  on  one  side  was  too  steep  for  a  force  to  climb. 

Ferguson  called  his  foes  a  "  swarm  of  backwoodsmen," 
but  he  knew  that  they  could  fight,  or  he  would  not  have 
posted  his  own  army  with  so  much  care.  He  felt  sure 
of  success,  however,  and  thought  that  Heaven  itself 
could  hardly  drive  him  off  that  hill. 

As  the  patriot  leaders  drew  near  the  British  camp 
they  saw  that  many  of  their  men  were  too  weary  to  over 
take  the  swift  and  wary  Ferguson,  should  he  try  to  get 
away.  So  they  picked  out  about  half  of  the  force,  nearly 
a  thousand  mounted  men.  These  men  rode  all  night, 
and  the  next  day  approached  the  hill.  Those  who  had 
lost  their  horses  on  the  way  hurried  on  afoot  and  arrived 
in  time  to  fight.  When  close  at  hand  the  riders  tied  their 
horses  in  the  woods,  and  the  little  army  advanced  to  the 
attack  on  foot. 

They  moved  up  the  three  sides  of  the  hill.  Ferguson 
was  famous  for  his  bayonet  charges,  and  the  patriots  had 
no  bayonets.  So  when  the  British  rushed  down  on  the 
center  of  the  advancing  line  the  mountaineers  gave  way 
and  the  enemy  pursued  them  down  the  hill.  Then  the 
backwoodsmen  on  the  flanks  rushed  in  and  poured  shot 
into  the  backs  of  the  British.  Turning  to  meet  these 
new  foes,  the  regulars  were  again  chased  up  the  hill  and 
shot  by  the  men  who  had  fled  from  their  bayonets.  Thus 
shrewd  tactics  took  the  place  of  weapons.  At  length  the 
gallant  Ferguson  was  killed,  the  white  flag  was  hoisted, 
and  the  firing  stopped.  Many  British  were  slain,  and  all 
the  rest,  save  a  very  few  who  escaped  in  the  confusion, 
were  made  prisoners. 


162 


FROM   TRAIL   TO   RAILWAY 


It  was  a  wonderful  victory  for  the  men  from  the  val 
ley.  They  had  come  from  a  region  of  which  Cornwallis 
had  hardly  dreamed,  and  they  had  destroyed  one  of  his 
armies  and  killed  one  of  his  best  commanders.  The  battle 
turned  the  tide  of  the  Revolution  in  the  South,  but  the 


FIG.  62.  JOHN  SKVIKR 

victors  hurried  back  as  quickly  as  they  had  come.  They 
were  not  fitted  for  a  long  campaign,  and,  besides,  they 
had  left  their  homes  dangerously  open  to  attacks  from 
savages.  It  was,  however,  the  one  battle  of  the  Revolu 
tion  against  white  foes  alone  that  was  planned,  fought, 
and  won  by  the  men  of  the  frontier. 

As  soon  as   John   Sevier  returned   to  the  valley  he 
found  plenty  of  Indian  fighting  to  do.    He  was  skilled 


FRONTIER   SOLDIERS  AND    STATESMEN      163 

in  this,  and  with  the  Watauga  men,  who  called  him 
"  Chucky  Jack  "  and  were  devoted  to  him,  he  was  a  ter 
ror  to  the  red  men  of  the  southern  mountains.  He  knew 
all  their  tricks  and  how  to  give  them  back  what  he  called 
"  Indian  play."  At  one  time  he  took  a  band  of  his  fol 
lowers  and  made  a  daring  ride  into  the  wildest  of  the 
Great  Smokies,  to  attack  some  hostile  tribes.  He  burned 
their  villages,  destroyed  their  corn,  killed  and  captured 
some  of  their  warriors,  and  got  away  before  they  could 
gather  their  greater  numbers  to  crush  him. 

We  must  not  forget  James  Robertson,  who  all  this 
time  was  doing  his  part  of  the  farming  and  the  fighting 
and  the  planning  for  the  new  settlements.  Already  the 
Watauga  country  began  to  have  too  many  people  and 
was  too  thickly  settled  to  suit  his  temper,  and  he  was 
thinking  much  about  the  wilderness  beyond,  near  the 
lower  part  of  the  Cumberland  river.  In  a  great  bend  on 
the  south  bank  of  that  stream  he  founded  Nashborough 
in  1779,  naming  it  in  honor  of  Oliver  Nash,  governor  of 
North  Carolina.  Five  years  later  it  became  Nashville, 
and  now  we  do  not  need  to  explain  where  it  was. 

Robertson  went  out  by  the  Cumberland  Gap,  but  soon 
left  Boone's  road  and  went  toward  the  west,  following 
the  trails.  When  he  and  his  followers  reached  the  place 
and  decided  upon  it  as  suitable  for  settlement,  they 
planted  a  field  of  corn,  to  have  something  to  depend 
on  for  food  later. 

The  next  autumn  a  large  party  of  settlers  went  out 
to  Nashborough.  Robertson's  family  went  with  them. 
They  did  not  go  through  the  woods,  but  took  boats  to 
go  down  the  Tennessee  river.  Their  course  led  them 


1 64 


FROM   TRAIL   TO    RAILWAY 


along  the  Tennessee  to  the  Ohio,  then  up  the  Ohio  a 
few  miles  to  the  mouth  of  the  Cumberland,  and  up  the 
Cumberland  to  their  new  home.  They  had  a  long,  dan 
gerous  voyage,  and  some  of  the  party  were  killed,  for 
the  savages  fired  on  them  from  the  banks. 

One  of  the  boats,  carrying  twenty-eight  grown  people 
and  children,  had  a  number  of  cases  of  smallpox  on 

board.  The  Indians  attacked 
this  boat  and  killed  or  cap 
tured  the  four  sick  travelers. 
For  their  deed  the  savages 
were  badly  punished,  for 
they  took  the  disease,  which 
soon  spread  widely  among 
the  tribes. 

For  a  long  time  after 
Nashville  was  begun  the 
pioneers  had  fierce  encoun 
ters  with  the  Indians,  and 
in  spite  of  all  their  care 
many  lives  were  lost.  Rob 
ertson  was  the  strong  man  of  the  place,  and  was  rewarded 
with  the  confidence  of  the  people. 

When  Tennessee  became  a  state  he  helped  to  make 
its  constitution.  He  was  a  member  of  the  state  Senate 
in  1798,  and  lived  long  enough  to  keep  some  of  the 
Indians  from  helping  the  British  in  the  War  of  1812. 
He  died  in  1814. 

He  was  brave,  and  willing  to  endure  hardship,  dis 
comfort,  and  suffering  in  a  good  cause.  He  went  alone 
over  the  snows  to  Kentucky  to  get  powder,  and  returned 


FIG.  63.  JAMES  ROBERTSON 


FRONTIER   SOLDIERS  AND   STATESMEN      165 


in  time  to  save  the  little  town  from  destruction.  The 
Indians  killed  his  own  son,  but  he  would  not  give  up 
the  settlement.  Plain  man  though  he  was,  he  gained 
honor  from  the  men  of  his  time,  and  wrote  his  name  on 
the  pages  of  American  history. 

We  must  learn  a  little  more  of  Isaac  Shelby,  whom 
we  have  seen  fighting  hard  at  Point  Pleasant  and  Kings 
Mountain.  He  was  born 
in  the  Great  Valley,  at 
Hagerstown.  When  he 
was  twenty-one  years  old 
he  moved  to  Tennessee 
and  then  across  to  Ken 
tucky.  He  fought  in  the 
Revolution  in  other  bat 
tles  besides  that  of  Kings 
Mountain,  and  before  he 
went  to  Kentucky  he  had 
helped  to  make  laws  in 
the  legislature  of  North 
Carolina. 

It  is^rather  strange  to  read  that  Kentucky  was  made  a 
"  county  "  of  Virginia.  This  was  in  1 776.  In  1 792,  largely 
through  Shelby's  efforts,  Kentucky  was  separated  from 
Virginia  and  became  a  state  by  itself.  It  was  the  first 
state  beyond  the  mountains,  being  four  years  older  than 
Tennessee  and  eleven  years  ahead  of  Ohio. 

Isaac  Shelby  was  the  first  governor  of  Kentucky,  from 
1792  to  1796,  and  years  later  he  was  governor  again. 
He  fought  in  the  War  of  1812,  and  his  name  is  preserved 
in  Shelbyville,  a  town  of  Kentucky.  The  Blue  Grass 


FIG.  64.  SEVIER  MONUMENT, 
KNOXVILLE 


1 66 


FROM    TRAIL   TO   RAILWAY 


region  has  been  called  the  "dark  and  bloody  ground" 
from  the  strifes  of  the  red  tribes  and  the  troublous  days 
of  the  first  settlers,  but  Shelby  lived  to  see  it  the  center 
of  a  prosperous  state. 

John  Sevier,  too,  had  more  honors  than  those  of  a 
noble  soldier.  In  front  of  the  courthouse  at  Knoxville  is 
a  plain  stone  monument  raised  in  his  memory  (Fig.  64), 
and  down  a  side  street  is  an  old  dwelling,  said  to  be  an 

early  statehouse  of  the 
commonwealth  which 
is  still  associated  with 
his  name.  In  1785  the 
state  of  "  Franklin  '* 
was  organized  ancl 
named  in  honor  of  the 
illustrious  Benjamin  ; 
but  North  Carolina, 
being  heartily  opposed 
to  the  whole  proceed 
ing,  put  an  end  to  it 
without  delay.  Sevier, 
as  governor  of  the 
would-be  state,  was  imprisoned,  but  escaped,  to  the  de 
light  of  his  own  people,  who  were  always  loyal  to  him. 
They  sent  him  to  Congress  in  a  few  years  and  in  1796 
made  him  the  first  governor  of  Tennessee.  He  enjoyed 
many  honors  until  his  death  in  1815,  which  came  soon 
after  that  of  his  more  quiet  friend,  James  Robertson. 
Both  of  these  wilderness  men  had  much  to  do  with 
planting  the  American  flag  between  the  Appalachian 
mountains  and  the  Mississippi  river. 


FIG.  65.  OLD  STATEHOUSE  AT 
KNOXVILLE 


CHAPTER   XIV 

CITIES  OF  THE   SOUTHERN   MOUNTAINS 

In  the  old  clays  it  took  the  traveler  weeks  to  go  from 
Pennsylvania  or  the  Potomac  river  to  the  valley  of  east 
Tennessee.  He  might  camp  in  the  woods,  living  on  the 
few  provisions  he  could  carry  and  on  what  he  could  shoot 
in  the  forest,  or  he  might  share  the  humble  homes  of 
chance  settlers  on  the  way. 

Now  he  enters  a  vestibuled  train  and  is  rolled  over  a 
smooth  iron  road  along  the  streams  and  between  the 
mountains.  Starting  one  day,  he  will  find  when  he 
wakes  the  next  morning  that  the  sun  is  rising  over  the 
Great  Smokies,  while  around  him  are  the  rich  rolling 
fields  that  border  the  Tennessee  river. 

If  the  traveler  wishes  to  see  the  land  and  learn  what 
men  have  done  in  a  hundred  years,  he  will  leave  the 
train  at  Knoxville.  A  carriage  or  an  electric  car  will 
carry  him  between  blocks  of  fine  buildings  to  a  modern 
hotel,  where  he  will  find  food  and  bed  and  places  to  read, 
write,  rest,  or  do  business,  as  he  likes.  Around  him  is  a 
busy  city  stretching  up  and  down  its  many  hills.  Before 
long  he  will  wander  down  to  the  banks  of  the  Tennessee 
river  and  see  the  boats  tied  at  the  wharf,  or  he  will 
cross  the  great  bridge  to  the  hills  beyond  and  look  back 
over  the  city. 

167 


1 68 


FROM   TRAIL  TO    RAILWAY 


On  those  hilltops  are  pits  dug  in  the  woods,  and 
some  veteran  of  the  Union  or  the  Confederate  army  will 
tell  him  that  these  are  ammunition  pits.  The  old  soldier 
will  point  across  to  where  Fort  Sanders  stood,  and  will 


FIG.  66.  STRKET  IN  KNOXVII.LK 

describe  those  days  in  1863  when  Longstreet  came  up 
and  laid  siege  to  the  town,  which  was  garrisoned  by 
Burnside  and  his  army. 

Our  traveler  need  do  little  more  than  cross  the  great 
bridge  at  Knoxville  to  find  quarries  of  marble  ;  and  if  he 


CITIES   OF   THE   SOUTHERN    MOUNTAINS      169 

goes  up  and  down  for  a  few  miles,  he  will  see  rich  de 
posits  of  this  stone.  It  is  prized  because  it  shows  many 
colors,  —  cream,  yellow,  brown,  red,  pink,  and  blue.  The 
colors  often  run  into  each  other  in  curious  and  fantastic 
ways,  and  the  slabs  and  blocks  when  polished  are  beau 
tiful  indeed.  These  marbles  have  been  used  to  adorn 


YIG.  67.  ON  THE  CAMPUS  OF  THE  UNIVERSITY  OF  TENNESSEE 

some  of  the  finest  buildings  in  America,  including  the 
National  Capitol. 

Around  Knoxville  are  fine  farms  also,  just  as  we  find 
them  about  Harrisburg,  Hagerstown,  Winchester,  and 
almost  everywhere  else  in  the  Great  Valley.  Our  view 
(Fig.  52)  is  taken  near  Knoxville  and  shows  sloping  fields 
always  ready  to  bear  good  crops.  The  soils  have  been 
made  by  the  wasting  of  the  top  parts  of  these  same  beds 
of  marble  and  of  other  rocks  found  along  with  it. 


I/O  FROM   TRAIL  TO    RAILWAY 

In  Knoxville,  on  the  edge  of  the  city,  is  the  Univer 
sity  of  Tennessee,  with  many  buildings  upon  its  campus. 
It  is  an  excellent  school  and  an  old  one  as  well,  having 
been  founded  in  1794.  It  was  first  named  Blount  Col 
lege,  from  one  of  the  prominent  public  men  of  the  valley 
at  that  time,  and  is  now  one  of  the  foremost  schools  of 
the  South. 

Only  seven  years  before  that  date  two  old  Revolu 
tionary  soldiers  rode  through  the  woods  and  picked  out 
these  lands,  which  were  given  to  them  as  a  reward  for 
their  service  in  the  war.  Here  they  built  as  a  defense 
against  the  savages  a  wooden  fort,  with  log  cabins  at 
the  corners  and  a  stockade  with  a  stout  barred  gate. 
Such  a  fort  was  greatly  needed  in  those  days  whenever 
a  new  settlement  was  made.  After  the  two  soldiers  had 
planted  corn  they  went  back  to  North  Carolina  to  bring 
their  families  over  the  mountains.  This  was  the  begin 
ning  of  Knoxville,  which  grew  up  around  the  fort  and 
soon  spread  over  the  hills  and  down  to  the  river.  The 
settlement  was  named  in  honor  of  Henry  Knox,  who  was 
an  able  general  in  the  Revolution  and  a  good  friend  of 
George  Washington. 

Now  the  railroads  reach  out  in  every  direction.  They 
bring  in  the  iron  ore  and  the  limestones  of  the  valley. 
They  also  run  up  into  the  Cumberland  Gap,  and  to 
Harriman,  Tennessee,  and  bring  back  stores  of  coal, 
thus  making  Knoxville  a  place  for  working  iron.  To 
the  east  the  Southern  Railroad  leads  up  the  French 
Broad  (Fig.  61)  through  deep  gorges  into  the  heart  of 
the  Great  Smokies  at  Asheville,  and  across  the  Blue 
Ridge  to  the  lowlands  of  North  Carolina. 


CITIES    OF   THE   SOUTHERN    MOUNTAINS      171 

All  this  is  very  different  from  the  samp  mortars  and 
the  puncheon  floors  of  early  times,  but  the  pioneers  had  a 
keen  eye  for  the  soil  and  the  waters  and  the  trees,  and  it 
is  these  which  have  helped  to  make  the  valley  rich  to-day. 

We  must  not  forget  that  off  to  the  west  James  Rob 
ertson  had  founded  a  city  that  is  even  older  than 


FIG.  68.   MARBLE  QUARRY  NEAR  KXOXVILLE 

Knoxville.  In  the  great  bend  of  the  Cumberland,  on  its 
south  bank,  in  northern  Tennessee,  stands  Nashville,  as 
we  have  already  seen. 

If  we  visit  a  large  city  in  one  of  the  countries  of 
Europe,  we  are  quite  likely  to  be  told,  or  to  read  in 
our  guidebook,  that  its  history  goes  back  hundreds  of 
years,  and  any  town  that  was  started  only  a  hundred 


1/2  FROM   TRAIL   TO    RAILWAY 

years  ago  would  there  seem  young.  But  we  measure 
age  differently  in  America,  and  a  town  like  Nashville, 
founded  in  1780,  we  think  is  old  indeed.  It  is  not  easy 
to  remember,  as  we  ride  along  the  streets  and  see  the 
shops  and  mansions  of  Nashville  to-day,  that  this  was 
once  a  place  of  log  cabins,  and  that  the  first  settlers 
had  to  sleep  always  with  one  ear  open  for  the  Indian's 
war  cry. 

That  James  Robertson  had  to  learn  to  read  from  his 
wife  did  not  keep  Nashville  from  becoming  one  of  the 
centers  of  education  and  refinement  in  the  South.  It 
would  take  several  lines  to  record  the  names  of  all  the 
colleges  and  universities  that  now  have  their  seat  in  this 
city.  Robertson  was  the  sort  of  man  who,  with  the 
opportunities  of  to-day,  might  have  been  the  president 
of  one  of  these  schools,  or  he  might  perhaps  have  gained 
a  fortune  with  which  to  help  in  their  support.  Farther 
west,  on  the  Mississippi  river,  stands  Memphis,  a  city 
still  larger  than  Nashville  ;  indeed,  few  southern  states 
can  boast  of  so  many  cities  as  Tennessee  possesses. 
Besides  these,  there  are  fertile  valleys,  fine  rivers  and 
mountains,  productive  forests,  beds  of  iron  ore  and 
coal,  comfortable  farms,  and  thriving  towns.  The  state 
is  rich,  too,  in  historical  associations.  Every  part  of 
Tennessee  saw  the  dark  days  of  the  Civil  War,  and  in 
the  fields  south  of  Nashville  a  great  battle  was  fought. 

When  John  Sevier  went  down  the  Tennessee  river  on 
his  Indian  raids  he  noticed  that  the  stream,  making  a 
great  bend,  turns  away  from  the  valley  and  flows  by  a 
deep  gorge  through  the  highlands  of  the  Cumberland 
plateau.  We  can  take  the  train  now  at  Knoxville,  and  a 


CITIES   OF   THE    SOUTHERN    MOUNTAINS     173 

ride  of  a  little  more  than  a  hundred  miles  will  bring  us 
to  this  place. 

By  the  river  is  a  steep,  high  ground  known  as  Cameron 
hill.  Let  us  go  up  to  the  top  and  look  around.  Stretch 
ing  away  at  our  feet  on  the  east  is  Chattanooga.  Part 
of  the  city  as  we  see  it  from  Cameron  hill  is  shown  in 
the  picture  (Fig.  70).  Beyond  is  the  Tennessee,  and  we 


FIG.  69.  STATE  HOUSE,  NASHVILLE 

are  looking  up  the  river  to  the  northeast.  The  bridge 
which  we  see  is  the  only  bridge  across  the  river  at 
Chattanooga,  even  though  it  is  now  a  large  and  busy 
city.  In  the  distance  is  high  ground,  a  part  of  Mission 
ary  Ridge,  famous  in  the  story  of  the  Civil  War. 

If  we  turn  around  and  look  southward,  we  shall  see 
Lookout  Mountain,  rising  fifteen  hundred  feet  above 
the  river.  A  battle  was  fought  on  the  steep  slopes  of 


FROM   TRAIL  TO   RAILWAY 

this  mountain  also ;  and  a  few  miles  to  the  southeast 
is  Chickamauga,  one  of  the  bloodiest  battle  grounds  of 
the  war.  On  the  edge  of  the  city,  kept  with  care,  is  the 
National  Cemetery,  where  rest  the  bodies  of  more  than 
twelve  thousand  soldiers,  northern  and  southern,  who 
perished  in  the  neighborhood  of  Chattanooga.  Now  all 
the  region  is  peaceful,  and  only  the  tablets  of  iron  and 
bronze,  set  up  by  the  government  on  every  battlefield  in 
the  neighborhood,  tell  the  story  of  the  conflict  as  it 
raged  about  the  city. 

Like  Knoxville,  Chattanooga  has  much  coal  and  iron, 
is  the  center  of  a  number  of  railways,  and  does  much 
business.  The  railways  run  up  the  valley  to  Virginia, 
and  south  to  Atlanta  and  elsewhere  in  Georgia.  They 
stretch  even  further  southward  to  Mobile  and  New 
Orleans,  while  the  lines  to  the  west  reach  Memphis 
and  Nashville.  Chattanooga  is  sometimes  called  the 
"  Gate  City  "  because  it  stands  near  the  opening  of  the 
Great  Valley  into  the  wide  plains  along  the  gulf  of 
Mexico.  The  place,  originally  called  Ross's  Landing, 
was  not  settled  until  1836,  when  Knoxville  and  Nashville 
were  about  fifty  years  old.  It  has  a  noble  site  and  may 
well  become  a  great  city. 

Here  passed  the  boats  that  bore  the  first  settlers  to 
Robertson's  colony  on  the  Cumberland.  There  are  no 
Indians  now  to  shoot  from  the  banks,  and  you  will  see 
on  the  river  only  rafts  of  logs  floating  down  from  the 
forests  in  the  mountains. 

Atlanta  also  is  often  called  the  "  Gate  City  "  of  the 
South.  It  stands  more  than  a  thousand  feet  above  the  sea, 
in  northern  Georgia,  where  the  Appalachian  mountain 


'75 


176  FROM    TRAIL  TO    RAILWAY 

range  is  tapering  down  toward  the  southern  plains. 
Because  Atlanta  is  so  high  it  is  cooler  in  summer  than 
most  southern  cities,  and  is  always  free  from  the  scourge 
of  yellow  fever  and  cholera. 

It  is  a  natural  site  for  a  city,  for  here  at  the  end  of  the 
great  mountain  system  the  long  lines  of  railway  that 
follow  the  Atlantic  coast  swing  around  to  the  west, 
passing  on  to  the  Mississippi  and  down  to  Mobile  and 
the  ports  on  the  gulf  of  Mexico.  Other  railways  reach 
Atlanta  from  Chattanooga  and  Knoxville  in  the  Great 
Valley,  and  still  others  lead  the  way  to  Savannah  and 
the  Atlantic  coast.  Thus  twelve  lines  of  railway  reach 
out  from  Atlanta  like  the  spokes  of  a  wheel  and  connect 
the  city  with  all  parts  of  the  South.  Let  us  take  a  map 
of  the  United  States  and  draw  a  line  through  Richmond, 
Louisville,  Nashville,  and  New  Orleans.  Notice  how 
many  states  lie  southeast  of  this  line,  and  remember 
that  of  all  the  towns  which  they  contain  Atlanta  is 
the  largest  and  most  important.  Indeed,  in  trade  and 
influence  it  surpasses  many  northern  cities  which  are 
much  larger. 

Atlanta  saw  stirring  times  in  the  Civil  War.  It  was 
small  then,  having  but  about  ten  thousand  people.  In 
1864  most  of  it  was  burned  to  the  ground,  and  we  may 
truly  say  that  it  has  grown  to  its  present  size  in  the  short 
period  since  that  time.  To-day  its  population  numbers 
more  than  one  hundred  thousand.  During  the  recent 
Spanish  War  the  Department  of  the  Gulf  made  its  head 
quarters  here,  so  that  Atlanta  appears  to  be  sought 
both  in  war  and  in  peace.  The  city  was  used  as  the 
capital  of  Georgia  soon  after  the  Civil  War,  and  in  1877 


FIG.  71.   ATLANTA:  BROAD  STREET,  LOOKING  NORTH 


177 


178  FROM   TRAIL  TO    RAILWAY 

the  people  of  the  state  voted  that  it  should  always  be 
the  seat  of  government.  Since  that  time  they  have 
erected  a  capitol  costing  a  million  dollars,  adorning  the 
interior  with  marbles  from  their  own  quarries. 

A  few  years  ago  an  exposition  was  held  at  Atlanta  to 
show  the  world  the  achievements  and  hopes  of  the  great 
South.  Everybody  knew  that  the  South  raised  cotton, 
but  Atlanta  wished  to  prove  that  the  South  could  also 


FIG.  72.  FULTON  BAG  AND  COTTON  MILLS,  ATLANTA 

spin  and  weave  her  famous  product.  Mr.  W.  G.  Atkin 
son  was  the  governor  of  Georgia  at  that  time.  During 
the  exposition  a  day  was  chosen  in  which  something 
unusual  should  be  done.  Men  went  out  into  a  field  in 
the  morning  and  picked  some  cotton.  It  was  ginned 
and  spun  and  woven  in  double-quick  time.  Then  tailors 
took  some  of  the  cloth,  cut  it,  fitted  it,  and  sewed  it 
into  a  suit  of  clothes.  Governor  Atkinson  put  on  the 
suit  and  visited  the  grounds  of  the  exposition.  In  the 
morning  the  cotton  was  in  the  field,  in  the  evening 


CITIES   OF  THE   SOUTHERN   MOUNTAINS      179 


it  was  on  the  governor. 
Suits  are  not  made  so 
quickly  as  that  on  ordi 
nary  days,  but  the  South 
spins  and  weaves  millions 
of  dollars'  worth  of  cotton, 
turning  the  mill  wheels 
with  southern  coal  or 
with  the  waters  of  swift 
southern  streams. 

Atlanta  is  not  only  at 
the  southern  end  of  the 
mountains,  but  it  is  on  the 
divide  which  separates  the 
streams  of  the  gulf  from 
those  of  the  Atlantic .  On 
the  one  hand,  not  far  away, 
is  the  Ocmulgee,  flowing 
to  the  ocean,  while  west 
ward,  and  distant  but  a 
few  miles,  the  Chatta- 
hoochee  flows  toward  the 
gulf.  The  latter  river  has 
been  harnessed  by  man, 
and  eleven  thousand  horse 
power  measures  the 
amount  of  energy  that 
can  be  carried  over  the 
wires  to  Atlanta  to  move 
its  cars  and  turn  the 
wheels  of  its  factories. 


ISO  FROM   TRAIL  TO   RAILWAY 

The  mills  not  only  spin  the  cotton  of  the  gulf  plains  but 
also  turn  out  fertilizers,  work  up  the  timber  of  the  region, 
and  make  a  multitude  of  other  things  to  swell  the  city's 
trade  with  her  neighbors. 

Appropriate  to  her  needs,  Atlanta  has  had  since  1887 
a  school  of  technology,  in  which  she  teaches  her  sons 


FIG.  74.  IRON  FURNACE,  BIRMINGHAM 

how  to  develop  the  great  resources  of  the  South.  Here 
are  shops  and  departments  of  engineering,  and,  not 
least,  instruction  in  making  textiles,  so  that  the  cotton 
of  southern  fields  need  no  longer  go  to  Massachusetts 
or  to  England  to  be  spun  and  woven. 

The  youngest  great  town  of  the  southern  mountain 
region  was  started  on  an  old  cotton  plantation  in   1871, 


CITIES    OF    THE   SOUTHERN    MOUNTAINS      181 

thirty-four  years  before  the  writing  of  these  lines.  The 
people  knew  that  in  Alabama  as  well  as  in  Tennessee 
coal  and  iron  are  found  close  together.  So  men  built  an 
iron  town  and  called  it,  after  one  of  the  greatest  furnace 
towns  in  the  world,  Birmingham.  It  is  a  noisy,  busy 
place,  with  wide  streets,  swift  electric  cars,  and  blazing 
furnaces.  To  see  it  grow  is  like  watching  a  new  Pitts- 
burg  rise  up  in  the  heart  of  the  South. 

From  the  Berkshire  country  at  the  north  to  the 
southern  end  of  the  Appalachians,  there  are  to-day  thriv 
ing  towns  and  fertile  fields.  No  longer  does  the  mountain 
wall  cut  off  the  products  of  the  West  from  the  markets 
of  the  East.  Yet  hardly  a  hundred  years  ago  the  eastern 
strip  of  country  was  practically  shut  off  from  the  whole 
territory  drained  by  the  Ohio  and  Mississippi  rivers. 
Indian  trails  and  rough  roads  were  the  only  means  of 
communication  between  the  two  sections.  Great  as  are 
the  natural  resources  of  both  regions,  their  prosperity 
has  been  bound  up  in  the  development  of  roads  and 
railways,  and  is  due  in  large  measure  to  the  energy, 
foresight,  and  self-sacrifice  of  those  who  crossed  the 
barrier  and  made  it  easy  for  others  to  follow  them. 


INDEX 


Adams,  Charles  Francis,  cited,  7 
Adams,  John  Quincy,  100 
Adirondacks,  32 
Albany,  N.Y.,  6,  10,  15,  1 6 
Alexander,  Mt.,  130 
Alexandria,  Va.,  41,  86 
Allegheny  Front,  74,  78,  80,  82 
Allegheny  Portage  Railway,  75,  76, 

80 

Allegheny  river,   1 1 1 
Allentown,  Pa.,  79 
Altoona,  Pa.,  77  ;    description  of, 

81 

Amsterdam,  N.Y.,  20 
Ann,  Fort,  32 
Annapolis,  Md.,  88 
Antietam,  132 

Appalachians,  southern,  174 
"Arks"  on  the  Susquehanna,  41 
Arnold,  Benedict,  37 
Atkinson,  Gov.  W.  G.,  178 
Atlanta,  Ga.,  174-180 
Auburn,  N.Y.,  57 

Bald  Eagle  valley,  80 

Baltimore,  Md.,  53, 86, 101 ;  growth 

of,  107 
Baltimore  and  Ohio  Railroad,  99, 

101,  102,  no 

Barges  on  the  Ohio,  116,  118 
Barton,  Clara,  cited,  82 
Bay  Road,  Mass.,  4 
Bedford,  Pa.,  71,  77 
Bemis  Heights,  38 
Bennington,  Vt.,  38 
Berkshires,  5  ;  railway  through,  9, 

10 

Bethlehem,  Pa.,  79 
Binghamton,  N.Y.,  52 
Birmingham,  Ala.,  181 
Black  Rock  (Buffalo),  47 


"  Blackbeard,"  130 

Blockhouse  at  Pittsburg,  112 

Blount  College,  170 

Blue  Grass  country,  127,  151,  166 

Blue  mountain,  79 

Blue  Ridge  mountains,  88,  130 

Boone,  Daniel,  early  life,  144; 
training,  145;  portrait,  145; 
moves  to  North  Carolina,  146; 
serves  with  Braddock,  146; 
camps  in  Kentucky,  147  ;  visits 
Cumberland  Gap,  148;  founds 
Boonesborough  148  ;  buys  lands 
of  the  Indians,  149;  marks  out 
the  Wilderness  road,  149 

Boonesborough,  148 

Boston,  Mass.,  i,  2,  7,  12 

Braddock,  General,  69,  90,  91,  146 

Braddock,  Pa.,  83 

Brant,  Joseph,  33 

Bristol,  Tenn.,  134 

British,  in  New  York,  32  ;  in  the 
Ohio  country,  156 

Brownsville,  Pa.,  93,  117 

Buffalo,  52,  57,  60,  no;  growth 
of,  6 1 

Burgoyne,  General,  32,  37 

Burnside,  General,  168 

Business,  increase  of,  114,  118 

Cambria  Steel  Company,  83 

Cameron  hill,  173 

Campbell,  William  and  Arthur,  160 

Canajoharie,  N.Y.,  24 

Canals,  44;  Erie,  7,  46,  48,  50-52; 
Pennsylvania,  74 ;  Chesapeake 
and  Ohio,  98-101,  107 ;  Dela 
ware  and  Hudson,  53  ;  at  Louis 
ville,  Ky.,  127 

Carlisle,  Pa.,  71,  79,  132 

Carroll,  Charles,  101 


183 


1 84 


FROM   TRAIL  TO    RAILWAY 


Carry  to  Schenectady,  the,  19,  22 

Catch-me-if-you-can,  2 

Catskill  mountains,  15,  32 

Chambersburg,  Pa.,  71,  132 

Champlain,  lake,  31,  37 

Charlottesville,  Va.,  142 

Chattahoochee  river,  179 

Chattanooga,  Tenn.,  135;  descrip 
tion  of,  173-175 

Cherokee  Indians,  139,  149 

Chesapeake  bay,  86 

Chesapeake  and  Ohio  canal,  107; 
building  of,  98-101 

Chicago,  1 10 

Chickamauga,  174 

Chissel,  Fort,  135 

Cincinnati,  Ohio,  description  of, 
123-127 

Clark,  George  Rogers,  raises  an 
army,  156;  portrait,  157;  cap 
tures  Kaskaskia  and  Vincennes, 
158 

Clay,  Henry,  stories  of,  96,  114 

Cleveland,  Benjamin,  160 

Clinch  river,  134 

Clinton,  De  Witt,  44,  49;  stirs  up 
legislature,  40;  portrait,  43; 
train,  53,  54 

Coal,  104,  118,  122,  153,  170,  181 

Cohoes,  N.Y.,  22 

Coke  ovens,  108 

Columbia,  The,  2 

Columbia,  Pa.,  69,  74,  76 

Columbus,  Ohio,  94 

Conemaugh  river,  75,  82 

Conestoga  creek,  67 

Conestoga  Traction  Company,  70 

Conestoga  wagons,  77 

Connecticut  river,  4 

Construction,  early  railway,  105 

Cooper,  Peter,  106 

Cornstalk,  155 

Cornwallis,  Lord,  158 

Cotton,  178 

Cumberland,  Fort,  89,  90;  city  of, 
93,  95,  102 

Cumberland  Gap,  142,  148,  150, 
152 

Cumberland  mountains,  134,  142 

Cumberland  river,  164,  174 


Cumberland  road,  93 
Cunard,  Samuel,  2 
Cunard  line,  2,  8 

Dams,  use  of,  119 

Danforth,  Mr.,  and  salt  making,  27 

Deerfield  valley,  8 

Delaware  and  Hudson  Canal  Com 
pany,  53 

Delaware,  Lackawanna  and  West 
ern  Railroad,  60 

De-o-wain-sta,  23 

Detroit,  41,  156 

Dickens,  Charles,  126 

Dinwiddie,  Governor,  89 

Doak,  Rev.  Samuel,  160 

Dongan,  Gov.  Thomas,  40 

Dunlap's  creek,  96 

Dunmore,  Lord,  155 

Duquesne,  Fort,  91 

Dutch,  in  New  York,  14,  18,  31 

Earle,  Mrs.  Alice  Morse,  cited,  55 

Easton,  Pa.,  79 

Edward,  Fort,  31 

Emerson,  Ralph  Waldo,  cited,  i 

Empire  State  Express,  56 

England,  interest  of,  in  fur  trade, 

18;  railways  of,  55 
Erie  canal,  7,  42,  46,  48,  50-52 
Erie,  lake,  18,  42,  98 
Erie  Railroad,  60 
Euphrates  river,  130 

Fairfax,  Lord  William,  88 
Falls  of  the  Ohio,  127,  146,  152 
Farms  in  Pennsylvania,  66 
"  Feeders  "  of  Erie  canal,  52 
Ferguson,  Patrick,  159 
Finley,  John,  146,  148 
Fishing  interests,  104         , 
Flag,  perhaps  the  first  American, 

34 

Elatboats,  1 1 7 
Floyd,  Gen.  William,  22 
Forbes's  road,  71 
Forts:   Orange,   17;  Stanwix,   22, 

23,  34>37>6l»  M9;  Schuyler,  23; 

Johnson,  26;  Edward,  31  ;  Ann, 

32 ;    Ticonderoga,    32,   37,   38 ; 


INDEX 


185 


Cumberland,  89,  90;  Duquesne, 
91  ;  Chissel,  135;  Sanders,  168 
Franklin,  Benjamin,  4,  69,  130 
"  Franklin,"  state  of,  166 
Frederick,  Md.,  .93 
French,  in  Ohio  country,  89 
French  and  Indian  \Var,  69 
French  Broad  river,  135,  159,  170 
Frostburg,  Md.,  90,  93 
Fur  trade,  18,  24,  40 
Furnaces  near  Pittsburg,  121 

Gansevoort,  Col.  Peter,  34. 

Gas,  natural,  120 

"Gate  City,"  the,  174 

Genesee  road,  24,  25 

Genesee  street,  Utica,  23 

Geneva,  24,  25 

George,  Mt.,  130 

Georgetown,  D.C.,  100 

Georgia  Institute  of  Technology, 

179 
Germans  in  Pennsylvania,  66;  in 

Tennessee,  136 
Ginseng,  24 
Gist,  Christopher,  89 
Glass  mills,  1 22 
Gray,  Captain,  2 
Great  Kanawha  river,  155 
Great  Smoky  mountains,  134,  170 
Great    Valley,    the,   71,    130,   132, 

134,  136,  139. 
Gullivers  Travels,  150 
Gypsum,  104 

Hagerstown,  Md.,  25,  132,  165 
Half  Moon,  the,  15 
Halifax,  2 

Hambright's  Hotel,  70 
Hamburg-American  line,  108 
Hamilton,  Col.  Henry,  156 
Hancock,  Gov.  John,  2 
Hanks,  Abraham,  149 
Harlem,  14 

Harpers  Ferry,  107,  130,  132 
Harriman,  Tenn.,  170 
Harrisburg,     Pa.,     74,     85,     1 32 ; 

description  of,  78 
Henry,  Patrick,  i  ^6 
Herkimer,  Nicholas,  29,  33,  35,  36 


Hessians,  33,  38 
Hill,  Gen.  A.  P.,  142 
////  or  Miss,  the,  77 
Hiwassee  river,  135 
Hollidaysburg,  Pa.,  74 
Holston  river,  134 
Honesdale,  Pa.,  53 
Hoosac  mountain,  5,  8 
Hoosac  tunnel,  9-11 
Hoosick  river,  5 
Housatonic  river,  5 
Howe,  General,  32 
Hudson,  Henry,  15,  1 6 
Hudson  river,  15 
Huguenots,  136 
Hulbert,  cited,  105 

Illinois,  158 

Indiana,  158 

Indians,  144,  149,  163,  164  ;  in 
New  York,  14,  17,  18,  33;  at 
Watauga,  138;  at  Point  Pleas 
ant,  155 

Indies,  hope  of  reaching,  15 

Iron  works,  121,  129,  170,  180 

Iroquois  Indians,  18 

Jackson,  "Stonewall,"  133 
James  river,  133  ;  gap,  134 
Jefferson,  Thomas,  156 
Johns  Hopkins  University,  108 
Johnson,  Fort,  26 
Johnson,  John,  36 
Johnson,  Sir  William,  20 
Johnstown,  N.Y.,  20 
Johnstown,  Pa.,  75,  76,  82 
Joppa,  92 
Juniata  river,  74 

Kaskaskia,  111.,  116,  157 
Kentucky,  127,  154,  164;  becomes 

a  state,  165 

Kings  Mountain,  158,  160 
Knights,  Sarah,  4 
Knox,  Gen.  Henry,  170 
Knoxville,  134,  166,  170 

Lake  Shore  Railroad,  no 
Lancaster,  Pa.,  65,  72,  78 
Lancaster  pike,  65,  67,  70 


i86 


FROM    TRAIL  TO    RAILWAY 


Lee,  Arthur,  113 

Lee,  Richard  Henry,  98 

Lee,  Gen.  Robert  E.,  132 

Legislators  allowed  boat  hire,  87 

Lewis,  Andrew,  155 

Licking  river,  124 

Limestones,  104,  132,  151,  169 

Lincoln,  Abraham,  117,  149 

Little  Falls,  N.Y.,  22,  42 

Little  Tennessee  river,  135 

Liverpool,  no 

Locks,  45 

Logan,  155 

London,  1 10 

Long  House,  the,  18 

Longstreet,  General,  168 

Lookout  Mountain,  173 

Losantiville,  124 

Louisville,  117,  127 

Lulbegrud  creek,  151 

Luray,  131,  132 

Lyell,  Sir  Charles,  cited,  126 

McClellan,  General,  132 

Mail,  first,  received  at  Utica,  24 

Mail  bags,  race  of  the,  109 

Mail  coaches,  94 

Manhattan  island,  14,  15 

Marble,  104,  168,  171 

Maryland,  86 

Memphis,  172 

Middlesboro,  153 

Milestone    on     Braddock's    road, 

90 

Missionary  Ridge,  173 
Mobile,  174 

Mohawk  valley,  16-19,  3!»  42'  59 
Monongahela  river,  93,  96,  1 1 1 
Morris,  Gouverneur,  42 
Mount  Vernon,  41,  86 

Nash,  Oliver,  163 

Nashborough  (Nashville),  163, 171, 

173 
National    Road,    the,    91,  93,  96, 

123 

New  Amsterdam,  14 
New  Jersey,  Scotch-Irish  in,  66 
New  Netherlands,  14 
New  river  (Great  Kanawha),  134 


New   York   Central   Railway,   20, 

30,  58,  60,  62 
New  York  City,  2,  7,  14 
New  York  state,  27  ;  well  adapted 

for  canal,  44 
Newburg,  N.Y.,  60 
A'oti/i's  Ark,  49 
Nolichucky  river,  159 
Norfolk    and    Western    Railway, 

'33 

North  Adams,  Mass.,  5 
Arortk  American  Review,  102 
North  Carolina,  137,  146 
North-German  Lloyd  line,  108 

Ocmulgee  river,  179 

Ogden,  Utah,  109 

Ohio  Company,  88 

Ohio  country,  French  in,  89 

Ohio  river,  76,  98,  in,   123,   127, 

152 

Oil  City,  120 
Omaha,  109 
Oneida  Indians,  17 
Oneida  Carrying  Place,  22 
Onondaga  salt,  27,  113 
Ontario,  lake,  18,  22,  33 
Oriskany,  29,  30,  35 
Oswego,  32 
Oswego  river,  22 
Otsego  lake,  98 
Oyster  industry,  104 

"  Packers,"  72 

Packets,  50 

Parton,  James,  cited,  120 

Penn,  William,  66 

Pennsylvania,  settlement  of,  66 

Pennsylvania  Railroad,  77-85 

"  Pennsylvania  Dutch,"  66 

Pennsylvania  canal,  74 

Phelps,  Abner,  9 

Philadelphia,  41,  63 

Pike,  Pittsburg,  72;  Frederick,  93 

Pineville  gap,  143,  147 

Pittsburg,  64,71,  75,  83,  107,  156; 

description    of,    in,    115,    120, 

122;  pike,  72 
Pittsfield,  Mass.,  5 
Point  Pleasant,  155 


INDEX 


I87 


Portage   Railway,   Allegheny,   75, 

76,80 

Post,  John,  23,  24 
Potomac  Company,  99 
Potomac  river,  86,  106 
Powell,  Ambrose,  142 
Powell's  river,  134,  142 
Prairies  in  Kentucky,  152 
Princeton  College,  66 
Providence,  R.I.,  4 
Puncheon  floors,  140 

Queen  City,  the,  124 
Queenstown,  no 
Quincy,  Mass.,  53 

Railways :  through  the  Berkshires, 
9,  10;  from  Albany  to  Schenec- 
tady,  9,  53 ;  early,  53,  56 ;  oppo 
sition  to,  55  ;  growth  of,  60,  109, 
181 ;  West  Shore,  59;  Erie,  60  ; 
New  York  Central,  20,  30,  58, 
60,  62  ;  Wabash,  102  ;  Baltimore 
and  Ohio,  99,  101,  102,  no; 
Southern  Pacific,  109 ;  Union 
Pacific,  109;  Lake  Shore,  no; 
Norfolk  and  Western,  133; 
Southern,  134,  170 

Reading,  Pa.,  79 

Red  Star  line,  108 

Redstone,  1 17 

Richardson,  Judge  John,  46 

Rivers  important  in  a  country's 
growth,  5-7,  1 6,  17,  24,  26,  31, 
41,  122,  126,  133 

Roads,  in  New  England,  4,  6,  7 ; 
stage,  64;  development  of,  72; 
indifference  to,  87 ;  national  in 
terest  in,  92  ;  Braddock's,  90 ; 
Cumberland,  93  ;  Frederick,  93  ; 
National,  91,93,  96;  Wilderness 
(Boone's  trail,  Kentucky  road, 
Virginia  road,  Caintuck  Hog 
road),  127,  149 

Roanoke,  134 

Robertson,  James,  goes  to  Wa- 
tauga,  137  ;  pacifies  the  Indians, 
139;  helps  protect  the  new 
settlement,  155;  founds  Nash- 
borough,  163;  trusted  by  the 


people,  164;  portrait,  164;  abil 
ity,  172 

Rochester,  N.Y.,  25,  52 

Rochester,  Colonel,  26,  41,61,  132 

"  Rolling  roads,"  88 

Rome,  22,  46,  61 

Roosevelt,  Theodore,  cited,  137, 
140,  160 

Ross's  Landing,  174 

Sails  on  cars,  105 

St.  Clair,  General,  124 

St.  Leger,  General,  33,  61 

Salt,  27,  61,  113 

Samp  mortars,  21 

San  Francisco,  109 

Saratoga,  38 

Schenectady,  19,  42,  47,  61 

"  Schonowe,"  19 

Schuyler,  Fort  (Utica),  23 

Schuyler,  Han  Yost,  37 

Schuylerville,  38 

Scotch-Irish,  66,  136 

Seneca  river,  24 

Seneca  lake,  25 

Settlement:  in  New  England,  4; 
in  New  York,  14,  24;  in  Penn 
sylvania,  66  ;  in  the  Ohio  coun 
try,  117;  in  Tennessee,  135, 
170;  in  Kentucky,  148 

Sevier,  John,  goes  to  Watauga, 
138  ;  fights  on  the  frontier,  155  ; 
plans  to  attack  Ferguson,  160; 
returns  home,  162;  portrait, 
162;  monument  to,  165;  other 
honors,  166;  on  the  Tennessee 
river,  172 

Shelby,  Isaac,  155,  159,  165 

Shelbyville,  165 

Shenandoah  valley,  88,  107,  130, 
132 

Sheridan,  133 

Shippensburg,  Pa.,  71 

Shreve,  Captain,  117 

Slate,  104 

"  Smoky  City,  The,"  120 

South  Mountain,  Pa.,  132 

Southern  Pacific  Railway,  22 

Southern  Railway,  134,  170 

Speed  of  early  trains,  io<j 


188 


FROM   TRAIL  TO    RAILWAY 


Spotswood,  Alexander,  129 
Springfield,  Mass.,  6,  10 
Stanwix,  Fort,  22,  23,  34,  37,  61, 

149 

Stark,  General,  38 
Staunton,  Va.,  135 
Steamboats,  1 18 
Stephenson,  George,  53 
Stillwater,  38 
Susquehanna   valley,    26,  41,  46, 

104 

Swift  Run  Gap,  130 
Sycamore  Shoals,  160 
Sydney,  Australia,  109 
Syracuse,  27,  52,  57,  61 

Tarleton,  Colonel,  159 
Teamsters  of  early  days,  64,  69 
Tennessee,    134,    154,    164,    172; 

University  of,  1 70 
Tennessee  river,  134,  142,  163,  167, 

172,  174 

Ticonderoga,  32,  37,  38 
Tidewater  country,  87,  130 
Timber,  104,  180 
Toll  houses,  68,  87 
Toll  rates,  94 
Tom  Thumb,  1 06 
Trails,  old,  4,  6,  17,  19,  22,  25,  28, 

72 

Tramways  in  England,  54 
Transylvania  Company,  148 
Travel,  early,  5,  22,  56,  64,  91 
Trow  Plat,  23 
Trunk  line,  57 

"  Tubal  Cain  of  Virginia,"  129 
Tudor,  Frederick,  4 
Twentieth  Century  Limited,  56 

Union  Pacific  Railroad,  109 
University  of  Tennessee,  170 
Utica,  21,  23,  37,  57,  61 


Valley  of  east  Tennessee,  135;  of 

Virginia,  132 
Valley,  the   Great,   71,    130,    132, 

134,  136,  139 
Valleys  as  natural  roads,  5-7,  16, 

17,  22,  24,  26,  31,  41,  126,  133, 

142,  152,  156 

Van  Curler,  Arent,  17,  19,  57,  61 
Vanderbilt,  Cornelius,  58 
fantttra,  the,  109 
Vincennes,  Ind.,  158 
Virginia,  129,  154;  valley  of,  132 

Wabash  Railway  Company,  102 
W  abash  river,  158 
Walker,  Dr.  Thomas,  142 
Ward,  Nancy,  139 
Washington,  D.C.,  91,  93,  94 
Washington,  George,   41,  60,  86, 

112,  133;  part  taken  by,  in  road 

making,  88-92,  98 
Washington,  Lawrence,  89 
Watauga  Settlement,  135-14  1,144, 

146,  159 
Waterford,  47 
West,  the,  40,  60 
Westfield  valley,  6 
West  Shore  Railway,  59 
Wheeling,  94,  107,  122 
White,  Hugh,  21 
Whitesboro,  21 
Wilderness  Road,  127,  149 
Willett,  Captain  Marinus,  35 
William  and  Mary  College,  142 
Wills  creek,  89,  102 
Wills  mountain,  93 
Winchester,  Va.,  132,  135 
Windmills,  Dutch,  15 
Wood  creek,  22,  42 

Yadkin  valley,  North  Carolina,  146 


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